Forget Oil, Coal Remains King

A mammoth shovel scrapes about 70 tons of coal shards off a 60-foot-high black wall like ice cream from a long, deep vat. The power shovel's boom pirouettes and dumps its load into a truck bed with a resounding thud, kicking up a haze of black dust. Four scoops later, the outsized truck — think 12-foot-tall tires — brimming with a fresh dark mound, rolls off. Without missing a beat, the shovel dives back into the bounty, releasing its next load just as another truck backs in. The scene —...Full Story