The Future of Coal
The Changing Role of the U.S. Coal Industry
Coal, a nonrenewable fossil fuel, has been used for heating since the days of the cave man; however, it was the need for energy during the Industrial Revolution that led to coal becoming a dominant supplier of energy. The roots of coal’s primary use — for electric power generation — can be traced back to Thomas Edison’s invention of the first practical coal-fired electric generating station in 1882, which supplied electricity to some New York City residents. Today, coal is an abundant U.S. resource. The United States holds the largest estimated recoverable reserves of coal in the world — enough…
