The coal industry is struggling as cheaper and cleaner natural gas undercuts coal and environmental regulations push utilities to shut down their older coal-burning plants. Still, new coal mines are opening as others expand. In one Texas county on the Mexican border, local officials and residents seem nearly united in their opposition to a new coal strip mine, but the company that owns it says it will ship out the first load of coal by train in September.

Ingrid Lobet filed this story for BURN and for the public radio show Marketplace.