To get gasoline or diesel from crude oil, you need to distill the oil.
To use gas, you need to burn it to burn it.
You can burn pure crude oil for electricity, but the sulfur and other junk pollutes just the same as coal at that rate.
Coal is still better than gas if you take all that into account.
Edit:
The trade off is you can't pump coal. It's cheaper and less polluting because you have to truck coal whereas you can pump oil by pipeline. It's best to have a mix of everything, and why the hell not?
To get gasoline or diesel from crude oil, you need to distill the oil.
To use gas, you need to burn it to burn it.
You can burn pure crude oil for electricity, but the sulfur and other junk pollutes just the same as coal at that rate.
Coal is still better than gas if you take all that into account.
Edit:
The trade off is you can't pump coal. It's cheaper and less polluting because you have to truck coal whereas you can pump oil by pipeline. It's best to have a mix of everything, and why the hell not?
Coal engine automobiles. I love the sound of that, reminds me of my childhood coal engine trains :)