Typical environmental journalism. Show a few figures that present a good picture, and ignore the bigger picture, and the real problems.

An article which shows that in the long term, solar delivers more energy per acre than coal. An efficiency that will improve as technological advancements make solar more efficient. A few miles from where we live in the Colorado mountains, mile-long trains, each powered by seven huge diesels, haul coal--night and day--from mines to cities to generate electricity. Once, picking up spilt coal from the tracks, its smell reminded me of winters of my childhood when everyone burned coal. In the coldest months, there was always a hazy, burning smell throughout the city, and clothes--hung outdoors before dryers--often had to be washed over to rid them of coal dirt.

Besides, if you put a solar unit up instead of a coal mine, the coal will sit there perfectly happily for a hundred, thousand or million more years to be used as an industrial feed stock sometime in the future rather than being wastfully burnt. In fact, if you put the solar array on the ground above the coal deposits, it will protect the coal from being mined. Win win.

Yes. It examines a most important and topical question.