By Nick Carey Sun Aug 27, 2:27 PM ET

GILLETTE, Wyoming (Reuters) - The long trains that seem to be everywhere in this sparsely populated stretch of land haul nearly 1 million tons of Powder River Basin coal to power plants daily, but that's simply not enough.

Utilities are clamoring for more of this fuel, which has become a popular alternative to costly natural gas. The mines in this region, dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of coal," say they are able to increase production.

Simon Romero, NY Times via Planet Ark

...Coal, the nation's favorite fuel in much of the 19th century and early 20th century, could become so again in the 21st. The United States has enough to last at least two centuries at current use rates — reserves far greater than those of oil or natural gas. And for all the public interest in alternatives like wind and solar power, or ethanol from the heartland, coal will play a far bigger role.

Jason Brenno., Global Public Media
Author and journalist Jeff Goodell discusses his upcoming book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future with GPM correspondent Jason Brenno.

Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground; he appeared on Oprah to talk with the miners about their experience. Goodell’s first book, The Cyberthief and the Samurai, was about the hunt for the notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. His memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, was a New York Times Notable Book. Big Coal arrives on bookshelves June 8, 2006.

David Roberts, Grismill
On Oikos, David Jeffrey wisely and succinctly diagnoses the problem:

It seems to me that the current international negotiations about climate change are the ultimate prisoner's dilemma. It is in each nation's best (economic) interests to have each other country do something about limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but not do something themselves.

This is equally wise and equally succinct: