Coal built the modern world and still makes its lights glow, but we've reached a turning point in our love affair with this powerful and ancient fuel.

The Obama Administration, amid objections from political foes and even some friends, is moving to push the U.S. to reduce its use of coal. The question will be how much the EPA's efforts to cut carbon emissions can do for the environment at a time when other nations, especially China and India, are escalating their burning of coal to meet a booming demand for electricity.

This flammable black rock powered the steam engines and factories of the industrial revolution in England and Europe more than 200 years ago. In the United States coal powered