Delicate Chaos Read Online Free

Anderson said. “Most of the older coal-burning power stations swallow tons of the stuff every minute to generate
     thousand-degree steam. The steam drives the turbines that produce the electricity.” He tasted the salmon, then a couple of
     veggies. The place might be full of sycophants, but the food was good. “By-product of burning coal like that is carbon dioxide.
     Lots of it. One of these big plants can dump tens of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day.”
    “Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, isn’t it?” Leona asked. “The worst one. It traps the heat and won’t let it escape. Carbon
     dioxide is the main reason we’ve got global warming.”
    “I’m assuming that’s the cheap way to burn coal.”
    “Yeah, the expensive way produces almost no carbon dioxide because they don’t actually burn it, they transform it to something
     called syngas. I don’t understand the process, but it’s definitely better for the environment.”
    Leona swallowed a mouthful of fish and said, “You mentioned what kind of coal they burn. I didn’t know there was more than
     one type.”
    “Well, coal is coal, but it comes with a shitload of impurities. Bitumen, sulfur, that kind of stuff. There are even trace
     quantities of thorium and uranium in some coal beds. Clean coal is bad enough, but add in all this other crap and it’s plain
     disgusting. Killing our planet, and not slowly.”
    “Why do you always know all this stuff?” She set her napkin on the empty plate.
    He smiled. “Impresses the girls.”
    “Worked on me,” she said.
    “So where does this company fit in? Environmentalists or pillagers? There’s not a lot of middle ground on this one.”
    “I don’t know.” Leona motioned for the check. “But I’m going to find out. And soon.”

4
    Reginald Morgan was a living icon. He was fourth-generation industrialist, and first-generation philanthropist. His great-grandfather,
     Ezra Morgan, had worked the Virginia coal mines for six years during the Civil War era as a butty , doling out the underground jobs and walking about the mine looking for sections that were susceptible to collapsing. It
     didn’t take long to realize the coal dust was killing him. He asked for a transfer to the head office, and since he had a
     quick head for math, was assigned to the accounting and payroll department. The patriarch of the Morgan clan rose quickly
     through the ranks, and by the age of thirty-six he was in charge of mining operations.
    Ezra changed the way things were done. Child labor, used to mine the coal from the seams and then pull it to collection points
     in a coal dram, was eliminated. He designed a complicated network of underground railways to move the coal, and an updated
     version of the mechanized pulley system to bring the coal back to the surface. His mines were patrolled by men who understood
     the causes and dangers of methane gas and who knew what to look for when a collapse was imminent. Ezra Morgan’s mines were
     the safest in the country.
    Over the generations, the family name became synonymous with not only coal but also electricity. They mined the coal, then
     transported it to their electrical generating plant a few miles away in the foothills bordering the Rich Mountains in West
     Virginia. Providing power to the eastern seaboard proved to be a very lucrative business and the Morgan family fortune grew
     exponentially. Control of the business was kept in the family, eventually settling on Reginald Morgan. But now it appeared
     the dynasty was about to end. He and his wife tried for many years to have children, something that had not happened. He remained
     at the helm, trying to stave off the day that his company would pass to an outsider.
    But Reginald Morgan was getting old. His seventy-third birthday had come and gone and his physical strength was waning. His
     mottled scalp showed under remnants of what had once been thick silver hair and his face was