Jul. 29--The fight over the proposed buyout of a huge, Maryland-based coal mining company is interesting for its own sake. Wall Street egos, including a hedge-fund manager and would-be buyer of the Pittsburgh Steelers, are battling over control of the country's fourth-biggest coal producer.

But the contest for Linthicum Heights-based Foundation Coal, which comes to a vote Friday, sheds light beyond Wall Street and the job of extracting soft black rocks from the Appalachian ground.

It's no less than a referendum on the future of energy, the environment and the American economy. One side is bullish on China and Brazil, and seems to fear that this country is in for a long, slow slog. The other is so confident that the United States will recover, and that coal is the fuel of the future, that it's willing to pay Foundation shareholders a very handsome price.

If the United States is "the Saudi Arabia of coal," as is often said, then Foundation could be Chevron, or Shell. With 1.7 billion tons of coal in its seams, the company could power Maryland's coal-burning electricity generators for more than a century. The question is whether anybody in Maryland or anywhere else will want the stuff.

Progress is catching up with coal. It spews too much junk into the air, although thanks to environmental rules, it's not as dirty as it used to be. Coal makes more greenhouse gas than other energy sources. If Congress attaches a price to carbon dioxide emissions through taxes or a cap-and-trade program, coal might not be the bargain it seems now.

The more immediate issue is when the U.S. economy will recover enough to need more coal at any price.

Electricity generation, the main use for coal, has plunged as factories and offices have gone dark. Coal consumption in the first quarter hit its lowest point since 2002, says the Energy Information Administration. Coal stockpiles have reached their highest level in more than two decades. A ton of the stuff costs less than a third of what it did a year ago.

Don't worry, says Alpha Natural Resources, a rival of Foundation's based in Abingdon, Va. It wants to buy Foundation for about $1.5 billion, an offer that has helped double Foundation's stock price since March.

Because of the kind of coal it sells, more than half of Alpha's orders last year went to Brazil and other international destinations. By absorbing Foundation, whose business is mostly domestic, Alpha becomes much more dependent on U.S. economic growth.

Alpha boss Michael Quillen trumpeted the "diversity across geographies" that the deal gives his company. (He said that in a news release.