For the foreseeable future, liquid hydrocarbon fuels will play a significant role in the transportation sector of both the United States and the world. Factors favoring these fuels include convenience, high energy density, and the vast existing infrastructure for their production and use. At present, the U.S. consumes about 26% of the world supply of petroleum, but this situation is expected to change because of declining domestic production and increasing competition for imports from countries with developing economies. A scenario and time frame are developed in which declining world resources will generate a shortfall in petroleum supply that can be alleviated in part by utilizing the abundant domestic coal resource base. One option is direst coal conversion to liquid transportation fuels. Continued R&D in coal conversion technology will result in improved technical readiness that can significantly reduce costs so that synfuels can compete economically in a time frame to address the shortfall.