Nowhere has the political power of coal been more obvious than in presidential campaigns.

For better or worse, the bulk of coal industry jobs are in Appalachia - and when that coal is gone, so are the jobs.

President Obama is in no danger of being judged by history as an eco-radical.

One thing you can say about nuclear power: the people who believe it is the silver bullet for America's energy problems never give up.

Bloomberg's $50 million is not going to revolutionize the electric power industry. But his willingness to fight is already inspiring others to see Big Coal differently.

Compared to coal, which generates almost half the electricity in the United States, natural gas is indeed a cleaner, less polluting fuel. But compared to, say, solar, it's filthy. And of course there is nothing renewable about natural gas.

Bloomberg is famously impatient with beltway politics and believes that to get anything done you need to work from the ground up.