Amos mentioned clean fuel from coal. We have a new Democratic governor in Montana, as of the last election, who has made clean alternative energy a focus of his administration. New technology now can be used in creating electricity from coal that does not pollute the air or water. Here is a bit about what Montana is doing to create a change in energy use toward clean alternatives, including wind power, biomass, synthetic fuels, solar/geothermal :

Coal to Liquids conversion
A page on the synthetic fuels project in Montana
"At 120 billion tons, Montana's coal is, in liquid terms, one quarter the size of the entire Middle East oil reserve..."
"Are there other applications of this technology?
In addition to making liquid fuels, coal gasification can be used to generate electricity with virtually no emissions and, looking toward the future, can be used to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells."

Alternative energy projects and links
Click here

Alice