As the United States strives to achieve energy independence, students need to be literate about energy and environmental issues. In this article, the authors present a lesson about the nation's electricity resources that is part 1 of a free, comprehensive unit on coal and energy that is available online (http://tinyurl.com/coalenergyunit). The…

Alternative energy sources have become increasingly important as the production of domestic oil has declined and dependence on foreign oil has increased. Historically, there have been four time periods during which the United States was in fact crippled by oil shortages. These time periods include: (1) the early 1900s; (2) World War II; (3) the…