Author │ Coal Industry Expert │ Journalist

As the price of oil soars and “energy independence” becomes an ever more urgent political concern, coal is growing as a readily available and strategically significant domestic energy source. In Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) veteran journalist Jeff Goodell takes a frank look at coal, which is being hailed as the cheap energy solution of the future.

Based on exhaustive research on the history of the U.S. energy industry and the environmental, political and economic issues underlying coal, he exposes its many hidden costs—greenhouse emissions, pollution, toll on the environment, miners and mining communities, industry collusion that stifles innovation—and discusses how we, as well as developing nations like India and China, will have to confront these pressing problems as global energy demand surges.

Long after we have run out of oil and natural gas, we will still have coal. As Jeff Goodell compellingly documents, this is a blessing that is also a curse. Big Coal should be read by anybody who owns a microwave, or an iPod, or a table lamp, which is to say everyone.

—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From A Catastrophe

Jeff Goodell is the author of several books and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. His articles appear regularly in Wired, New Republic and The New York Times Magazine, where his most recent feature focused on the emerging field of carbon emissions trading.

His other books include New York Times bestseller, Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground and The Cyberthief and the Samurai, which chronicled the hunt for the notorious computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. He is also the author of a memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, which was a New York Times Notable Book.

To hear a recent interview with Jeff Goodell on National Public Radio's Fresh Air, click here.

To see a recent appearance by Jeff Goodell on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, click here.

To read Jeff Goodell's New York Times article on carbon emission trading, click here.

For more information on Jeff Goodell and Big Coal, click here.