Actually, South Africa's state oil company, Sasol, created a very successful oil-from-coal programme.
Well, I say successful - what I mean is that it worked. Unfortunately, the poor taxpayer was hit for a few billion rand in development costs as well as an 'equalisation tax' on regular fuel.
Still, I reckon that you could use the same process here and sell it tax free - and help out both consumers and the remnants of the coal industry!