coal

Somerset County in southwestern Pennsylvania is deep coal country. For years, it's been looking to remake itself. Wind energy and health care may be its future — if it can attract qualified workers.

As renewables make up a bigger share of the nation's energy grid, some worry about blackouts when the wind doesn't blow. But grid operators say they're getting better at balancing energy resources.

The industry has been in decline for years, partly because burning coal creates CO2 and warms the atmosphere. But there's a way to capture it — which has drawn praise from traditional enemies.

Nearly 90 percent of Kentucky's electricity is from coal — the cheap energy source that helped build its manufacturing economy. Now it's struggling to respond as more businesses want clean energy.

The idea behind "clean coal" is technology that would capture for reuse most of the carbon dioxide emitted by coal-burning power plants. Entrepreneurs aim to use similar tech to clean natural gas.

Capturing carbon emissions from coal plants would reduce coal's effect on climate change. But high costs and other factors have stymied efforts to use that technology at more U.S. power plants.