Patrick O'Hara, who works next door to a coal-burning power plant in Chicago, was recently diagnosed with asthmatic bronchitis brought on, he believes, by breathing in pollution from the plant. So, when he heard about a mass protest to demand action on global warming, O'Hara boarded a train for Washington, D.C., and joined thousands of people who marched around the coal-burning power plant that supplies energy to the U.S. Capitol.

The March 2 protest rally marked a high point in the battle to end the country's dependence on coal, which supplies half of U.S. electricity and produces a third of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Activists around the country had already won dozens of local fights to block construction of new power plants. In Appalachia, meanwhile, protests against a strip-mining technique that flattens entire mountaintops had coal companies on the defensive. The industry was starting to look decidedly out of step with the challenges of climate change.

But the Capitol protest has also served to illustrate how far the country remains from a real shift to renewable energy. Organizers of what was known as Capitol Climate Action (CCA) promised the largest-ever mass mobilization on global warming, saying more then 1,000 people had RSVPd online, and many thousands of college students were expected to spill over from the annual PowerShift lobbying week. But when the unseasonably cold day arrived in the city blanketed with snow, only about 2,500 people showed up.

What's more, the Obama administration has taken an ambiguous stance on mountaintop mining, blocking fast-track permits, but allowing the practice after case-by-case reviews. The coal industry, in other words, has been slow to release its formidable hold on Washington.

This sluggish progress has disappointed O'Hara, a newcomer to anti-coal activism. He joined his local chapter of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) when he returned home from D.C. and has stayed active, but says he expected more movement from the White House and Congress.

"We are not any closer than we were in March. We're still stuck in the same place," O'Hara said in a phone interview three months after the march.

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