Coal is cheap and abundant in the US state of West Virginia, a combination that has led the fossil fuel to become a prime source of energy, jobs and political influence.
However, the very benefits it provides also pose a huge environmental challenge.
Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman visits the Mountain State, home to the largest electricity company in the US, to find out how American Electric Power (AEP) can churn out tons of carbon dioxide without contributing to a global environmental disaster.
Teaming up with the French energy consultants Alstom, AEP has begun to pump waste chemical gases deep into the ground - a procedure it says could keep our atmosphere safe for centuries to come.
They hope to demonstrate their particular method of underground carbon capture and storage can isolate nearly all the CO2 from existing power plants.
