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54 Coal
is far less harmful to the environment than it once was. Coal is not only an energy
resource, it can also provide many kinds of raw materials and products. It powered the
Industrial Revolution and has been central to industries and products that are now
widespread and important for modern life.
In the past few years, the United States and Canada have passed new, stricter
regulations to reduce greenhouse and toxic gas emissions, not only from new fossil-
fuelled power plants but also from existing ones. Natural gas, which burns relatively
clean and is becoming much more available, can perhaps be a “bridge” energy source
to the real long-term future of renewables. Coal has a long, vital, and famous past. Its
role in the coming decades and centuries is less clear.
Families in Tallsmanville, West Virginia comfort each other in 2006, after an explosion
trapped 13 miners underground. Only one miner survived.