Ahhh yes, the rational argument! The best argument! And out here in JesusLand, the wrong argument. We have this abomination to deal with. Solar out here rhymes with Satan and the legislature is actively fighting it. I'd love a real, punitive, carbon tax. I'd love to put solar on every residential rooftop that faces south. If I put solar on my roof as a hedge against our shitty power grid out here, I get penalized thanks to state laws that are protecting coal and the local utilities. And we cannot lease the power back into the grid like other states can. Moving 25 miles north into either Ohio or Indiana, and the picture changes, but that is not in the cards for me for various reasons.

Presume your solar synfuel recracker operates at one tenth the efficiency of a refinery.

Good presumption and maybe a little low. And I completely agree with you. Every way to get energy that is not using carbon is a HUGE net positive.

But as you say, there is "power," and then there is "Power." If we cannot move people off coal and have to wait for all the NewsCorp-watching old people to die, at least the trees are something to get everyone dragging along. Doing something, anything at this point, is a lot better than doing nothing.