I spotted a big coal train moving through town a few nights ago. As that huge load slipped quietly by, I wondered what people would think if they knew the truth about coal. What if they really knew how good conservation is and how bad coal and oil are? 
What if they knew that in the United States, we burn a railroad car worth of coal every 3 seconds. This year, your family will burn 1,000 pounds of coal just to run your clothes dryer (yet many communities make it illegal to dry your clothes on a line outside). The Average American family burns 30 pounds of coal every day. That’s an awful lot of damage to the environment. For all of this and more, see this recent post.
Nice post: thanks for writing about this. By the way, did you see the Great Coal Debate at Wahington University? You can find it here: http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-… . It was amazing not only because Nilles from the Sierra Club completely destroyed the Peabody representative, but also because this literally is the best coal companies have to offer! Fred Palmer is the VP of Government Relations for the largest private-sector coal company in the world, and he was just completely unable to provide any decent arguments.