|
A FREIGHT train, its dozen cars loaded with coalcovered in a light dusting of snow, snaked throughthe narrow valley, sometimes following the two-lane highway and sometimes crossing it. The valleywas silent and snowy, and though it was two daysinto 2012 it could easily have been 1982, 1942 or1922: coal has been mined in Appalachia andcarried out by rail for well over a century. 一列货运火车装载着十二车煤炭，煤炭上覆盖着一层薄薄的白雪，火车迂回地行进于狭窄的山谷之间，时而沿着这一条双车道高速公路行驶，时而又穿过那一条。峡谷寂静而多雪，尽管这已经是进入2012年以来的的第二天了，然而在阿帕拉契亚，这样的一天也可以发生在1982年,1942年或者是1922年：一个世纪以来，煤炭在这里挖掘，并不断用火车运走。 And by some measures, coal is still going strong. It provides more of Americas electricitythan any other fuel. Production has fallen off since 2008, but it remains high, as do prices, forwhich thank the developing worlds appetite. In Appalachia, coal remains a source of well-paid jobs in a region that needs them: for the first three quarters of 2011 employment in theAppalachian coal industry was at its highest level since 1997. And the Powder River Basin,which spans Wyoming and Montana, has become Americas major source of coal in the pastdecade, relieving overmined Kentucky and West Virginia. The Energy InformationAdministration reckons America has enough coal to meet current demand levels forthe next 200 years. | 
