Coal in Europe carbon dioxide emissions, has been attacked for its detrimental effects on health. Coal has been linked to acid rain, smog pollution, respiratory diseases, mining accidents, reduced agricultural yields and climate change. Proponents of coal downplay these claims and instead advocate the low cost of using coal for energy. Many European countries, such as Italy, have turned to coal as natural gas and oil prices rose. Coal technology has also advanced over the years, and emissions of soot and gases released in the burning of coal have been greatly reduced. New coal pollution mitigation technology, which often refers to carbon capture
Natural gas in the United States the oil and the gas are treated separately. Gas flows through a gathering system into a pipeline to a gas processing plant. As of 2014, there were 189,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines in the United States Natural gas has a variety of chemical constituents that must be removed or diluted with other gas to achieve consistent pipeline quality. Pipeline gas specifications vary from line to line, but generally the gas must contain no appreciable hydrogen sulfide (which is toxic), less than a few percent carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which is corrosive