There's no denying the importance of coal in America.

The combustible black rock provides about 40% of the United States' electricity and plays a vital role in the economy of places like West Virginia.

But there's also no getting around the major health and environmental problems caused by both coal mining and coal burning.

One increasingly popular mining method, called mountaintop removal mining, could be the most destructive yet. While traditional coal mining extracts coal from underground, mountaintop removal mining blasts away chunks of mountains to get at the coal beneath. This method also requires fewer workers than others, thus reducing jobs (and the cost of electricity).

In January, we went to West Virginia and rented a plane to get a better sense of what mountaintop removal mining does to the people, economy, and landscape.