US Addiction to Coal Energy

The origins of coal energy date back to the Industrial Revolution, when manufacturing plants and industry transformed the United States into a land of efficiency. Machines replaced human labor, and the country changed the way it viewed energy. Americans became obsessed with finding efficient production methods that would drive business and create a better way of life. The discovery of coal use for power plants and electricity became a part of American culture without any immediate concern for the future. As time passed, communities, activists, and environmental groups started to identify the vast amount of destruction caused by these coal fired power plants and coal mining methods. The public community and environmental groups started to ask questions about this energy source and later made definitive conclusions about the negative consequences related to coal energy production. The coal and power industry did not give up without a fight, and we are currently in a tug of war situation between Big Coal and environmental organizations. The mining of coal energy comes at a huge cost; the lives of others, the damaging affect to our lands and plant and animal communities, and a hazardous affect on the climate change battle. Last year alone, coal energy produced about 36% of the total emissions in the United States.
The United States is a land that is plentiful of coal. Currently, coal fired power plants generate at least 50% of the power used for electricity. Recently, there have been a number of alternative solutions to generate energy without using coal fired power plants. The US government is pushing the use of renewable energy and is creating legislation that will curb the use of historically dirty power plants. Renewable Portfolio Standards are required now in a number of States, which will ensure that States continue to invest in renewable energy projects. However, these endeavors are still not as far reaching as environmental groups would hope. The International Energy Agency predicts that “about one-third of the new electric capacity built between 2005 and 2025 will be coal fired” (According to "Big Coal" by Goodell 205).