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Blueprint America — with NOW on PBS — looks at if America’s most affordable and abundant energy resource — coal — can be produced without an adverse effect to the environment.

Still, the country is dependent on coal – it supplies half of America’s electricity. At the same time, there is a price — coal may be cheap, but the environmental cost is high.

With carbon emissions caps on the Obama Administration’s agenda, coal is at the center of the energy debate. NOW‘s Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa goes to Wyoming to report on the state’s coal industry, and its assertion that it can produce “clean coal” — coal that can be burned without releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

President Obama has been outspoken in his support for “clean coal” technology, but others argue the concept is simply a public relations campaign instead of an energy solution.

As part of the report, Hinojosa talks with Dave Freudenthal, the Governor of Wyoming, and Jeff Goodell, the author of “Big Coal,” who says that carbon dioxide emissions generated from coal contribute to global warming.