Peak Coal and Mountaintop Removal

Lucky for us: There may not be as much coal left as the industry has claimed.

The biggest nightmare for global warming, aside from the Bush presidency, is the prospect that the world will burn more coal. Compared to other fossil fuels, coal creates the most greenhouse gas pollution per unit of energy.

But with oil and natural gas depleting, and other energy sources either maxed out (nuclear and hydroelectric) or years away (wind, solar and other renewables), the coal industry has already begun to step in aggressively to fill energy demand around the world, particularly in China and the U.S., the world


Claiming that the U.S. alone has a 200-year supply of domestic coal, the industry has promised that it can deliver not only electricity but also, through liquefying coal, that it can replace oil to power our cars, trucks and planes as well. The industry has tried to sweeten the pill for environmentalists by promising to sequester the carbon pollution, an untested and complex procedure that is not sure to work but absolutely sure to entail great expense.

Meanwhile, getting the stuff out of the ground has long been a nightmare for residents of the world