The United States gets over half of its electricity from burning coal, and this tremendously important resource remains one of the nation's greatest assets. However, it is not an asset without problems, as the burning of coal has brought with it tremendous levels of air pollution and other problems. This latest radio documentary from the American RadioWorks group was produced by Catherine Winter,...

The National Coal Resources Data System is an online database of analytical data, sample locations, descriptive information, analytical methods, sampling techniques, and bibliographic references for selected US coal samples provided by the USGS. Users are guided through several steps that include choosing the type of report to be generated, specifying sample search criteria, and whether to display...

Two new publications from the US Geological Survey (USGS) were posted this month. The first, from the Central Region Energy Resources Team, has an executive summary and 20 chapters on coal resources for the Colorado Plateau available for download in .pdf format. A link to digital map data and the stratigraphic database is at the end of the report. The Kaparowitz Plateau, San Juan Basin, and...

Western Fuels, "an especially aggressive industry player," offers alternative interpretations of the threat of global warming and warn against unnecessary regulations on US industry. Recently, delegates from 160 countries commenced a ten day conference in Kyoto, Japan to agree on a strategy to cut the world's emissions of greenhouse gases, which are thought to cause global warming. Any agreement,...