16. Coal Mines

Coal–the fuel responsible for more than half the electricity used daily. We unearth the amazing technological advances that have led to today’s extremely efficient methods–from ancient techniques to the simplistic bell-pit method, from drift mining, surface mining, and strip mining to modern longwall mining, when a massive machine extracts an entire wall of coal in seconds. We go underground with miners in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and also address environmental concerns.