Energy Plot 2 - Coal

Okay, on to part 2 of the energy summaries. We're still on nonrenewable energies, and this one is about coal.
In America, coal is the main thing that powers our power plants. Like oil, it was created by long-gone organic material. And like oil, it contains a lot of energy.
There are different qualities of coal, and since we can't make more, we can only get so much coal before it's no longer worth mining. Especially since most of the best-quality coal has been mined already. What's left is harder to access, doesn't contain as much good energy, and is much much messier when it's burned.
Coal is the main source of air pollution. It spews greenhouse gases and nasty chemicals into the air. It's also the source of acid rain.
Hundreds of years ago, people had coal available to burn for fuel, instead of burnign wood. But they often chose not to burn it because it made the air nasty.
Mining coal can be incredibly destructive. Mountain-top coal mining is some of the worst. Entire mountain ranges can be completely leveled, leaving giant, lifeless piles of gravel. Dirt and toxic chemicals wash down the streams, getting into people's drinking water and seeping into the ground water.
It's bad stuff.
There's more coal still underground than there is oil, so we could potentially continue to mine it for many more decades, depending on how fast we tear it out of the earth. As far as I know, we can't run cars off of coal. Unless coal goes to power electricity to run electric vehicles. Which brings me to another point. Electric vehicles may not actually be more environmentally friendly. If that electricity is generated from coal, then it creating even more air pollution than if you were using a normal gas car.