COAL IN THE ENERGY CRISIS

The hows of coal--how it is formed, mined, transported, and cleaned, and how the companies painstakingly restore the land after surface mining. To hear Coombs tell it, there are no scarred landscapes or acid rains; pollution problems have all been taken care of by a complex of ""strict,"" ""confusing,"" ""cumbersome,"" ""inconvenient,"" highly ""costly,"" but (reluctantly) ""necessary"" regulations. Coombs' only note on the labor front is the ringing statement that ""a particular breed of man. . . is needed to work in this dismal, dangerous, and closed-in world [and] help to cope with the energy crisis."" Glossy and one-sided like Pipeline Across Alaska (1978), but without the latter's subzero glamor.