It wasn’t until the end of the seminar that someone commented on the front-end impact of coal – the process of extracted it and transporting it to electric generating facilities. Even if a viable way to harness coal power with minimal emissions is developed, coal mining has its own problems. The long term damage caused by strip mining and mountain top removal has displaced thousands of people, buried thousands of miles of streams under mine rubble, led to extensive flooding, and increased air pollution. These effects must also be addressed if coal can ever be called “clean.”
The Coal Conundrum
