When in 1939 war did break out between Germany on the one hand, and Britain and France on the other, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dutifully invoked the Neutrality Acts. However, he believed that this was a fundamentally different war from World War I.
Another advanced coal technology is coal gasification, a process in which coal is converted to a gas (called syngas) before it is burned, making it easier to separate CO2 as a relatively pure gas before power is generated.
The major use of black coal is for generating electricity in power stations, where it is pulverised and burnt to heat steam-generating boilers. Coal used for this process is called steaming coal. In 2008 77% of the electricity generated in Australia was produced by coal fired power stations (includes black and brown coals). Some types of black coal are suitable for coke-making.