42 U.S.C. § 13335 — Coal refinery program

(a) Program: The Secretary must run a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial use for coal refining technologies. (b) Objectives: The program covers refining high-sulfur coal, low-sulfur coal, sub-bituminous coal, and lignite into clean-burning transportation fuels, compliance boiler fuels (fuels clean enough to meet pollution rules), fuel additives, lubricants, chemical feedstocks, and carbon-based manufactured products — either alone or alongside making electricity or heat, or making a range of coal products. The program's goals are: (1) getting technologies like mild gasification, hydrocracking, and other hydropyrolysis processes (methods that break coal down using heat and hydrogen) into commercial use quickly, so they convert coal to electricity and other products more efficiently than current technology; (2) making energy, fuels, and products that, counting the whole energy system, pollute no more than existing comparable systems used for the same purpose; (3) producing a range of coal-derived transportation fuels — including oxygenated hydrocarbons, boiler fuels, turbine fuels, and other products — that can replace imported oil in transportation and other parts of the economy; (4) lowering the cost of making these coal-derived fuels and other products; (5) controlling emissions from burning coal-derived fuels; and (6) making these technologies ready for commercial use by 2000.