a powerful piece on coal

and the land that is being raped to get at it. AND the illness and ugliness it brings to the people in the area. incredible slideshow at the link.

Big Coal's Dirty Plans for Our Energy Future [With Shocking Photos]
By Antrim Caskey, AlterNet

Big coal is hoping for government subsidies to replace oil. But their "clean coal" plan is an ecological nightmare for everyone. Just as the American people and the world are beginning to recognize the necessity of shifting to renewable energies, Big Coal, in collusion with an out-of-step administration, is pushing their dirty fossil fuel as the solution to our nation's energy crisis.
Big Coal and its cohorts envision a "clean coal technology" future fueled by liquifying and gasifying coal, capturing the carbon emissions and injecting them underground. By 2030 the West Virginia Division of Energy -- a nascent state agency formed in July, 2007 -- wants to oust oil and exalt coal by displacing the 1.3 billion gallons of foreign oil the state currently imports every year.
The WVDoE believes "that higher energy prices are providing and will continue to provide market opportunities" for a variety of alternative coal technologies including "coal waste, coal fines and coal bed methane," according to a document released in December 2007 called, "A Blueprint for the Future.".........................