In this country, we use a lot of resources to make energy. However some resources are more reliable than others, so we use them more often. One reason for this is that many people want electricity that's always there when they need it. It's not good when your electricity cuts out and your clock radio doesn't wake you up for school. It's worse for a company when robots that manufacture products stop running. People and businesses need electricity they can count on all the time, so most of them don't use wind and solar power to make electricity, because those technologies aren't very reliable yet. Instead, most people use electricity from companies such as AEP, which makes electricity by using coal and nuclear energy.

Even though coal has been used more than any other resource in the Power Pie to generate electricity, some people think that coal shouldn't be used for environmental and health reasons. All the basic elements of the earth are in the form of coal, and when coal is burned by a power plant, elements like sulfur and nitrogen are changed into gases called sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NO_x).

Right now, many people are talking about the carbon dioxide (CO₂) that is being discharged by power plants around the world, trying to link CO₂ emissions to changes in the climate. They are trying to figure out what can be done to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Beginning in the 1970s, U.S. lawmakers recognized that electricity made from coal made everyone's lives better, but they also thought that pollution from burning coal needed to be controlled so the environment is preserved. As a result, they passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other laws. Scientists performed studies to figure out how much of a pollutant could be in the environment without making people and animals sick. Agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) help set limits and safety requirements for power plants so there wouldn't be too many pollutants in the air and water.

Pollution control equipment on power plants works well to reduce SO₂ and NO_x before these gases leave the power plant. As people use more electricity, more coal is burned as a result, but SO₂ emissions have gone down (graph 9). NO_x levels have gone down too (graph 10). Visit http://www.cleanairprogress.org to see other USEPA data that shows similar trends.

The Electric Power Research Institute has helped develop technologies, like clean coal technology, where fossil and non-fossil resources are used in generating energy with fewer emissions so the environment is preserved. AEP has developed an advanced clean coal technology, called PFBC, which you can learn more about on the DOE Web site. PFBC hasn't really been used in the United States yet because more equipment is required to maintain the levels of pollutants required by the USEPA. To get the most out of PFBC, it needs to be used in new power plants, not added onto existing ones. Power companies aren't building big, new plants right now, but AEP and others are helping build coal-fired plants in China, where PFBC could be used. That's important, because developing countries like China need a large amount of electricity for their people very quickly. They've decided to burn the coal they have. That will make more pollutants which could be harmful if they aren't controlled right.

• Visit http://www.osmre.gov/slides.htm to see a slide show from the U.S. Department of the Interior on how coal is mined and the land is restored.
  
• Visit http://www.eei.org to access lists of power companies at the Edison Electric Institute to find out what your power company is doing for the environment.
  
• Visit AEP's environmental performance report.

What do you think should be done so the electricity and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) lines in the graph you viewed earlier keep going up, while the environment is protected?

• Companies should be able to choose any resource from the Power Pie to make electricity; natural gas will probably be a popular choice.
• Continue to perform more research on renewable resources, so they can provide more electricity.
• Clean coal technologies can be used in new plants in developing countries and in new U.S. plants after old plants wear out.
• Research on advanced clean coal technologies will help get them ready to be used in new plants when the time comes.
• Existing nuclear plants need to keep running, and research is needed to make new plants better.
• People and businesses should be able to buy electricity generated by any and all resources at the best price.