what price light?

This image struck me as poignant because, as the tragedy of the Sago Miners so tragically brought to the nation's attention, coal is "the workhorse of the nation’s electric power industry, supplying more than half the electricity consumed by Americans" (US DOE website: energy.gov). What kind of first-world country still sends people into mines? Isn't that why we invent robots? I'm guessing its an involved and tricky process that would confuse our current level of AI. I'm also guessing, going out on a limb here, that alternative energy sources aren't high on our government's priority list. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge anyone?


photo by Eddie Adams, coal miner ca. 1969. A miner then earned an average of $14.80/day.