Oil prices may rise and fall, but the quest for energy security is eternal. It is in China, at least.

China joined South Africa as the only countries with a working coal-to-liquids plant designed to turn abundant domestic coal into liquid transport fuel, Bloomberg notes. China’s Shenhua Group announced the plant went operational yesterday, with plans to ramp up liquids production from 13,000 barrels a day to about 240,000 barrels a day by 2015, notes Platts.

While...