Dirty Power for Electric Cars

The Washington Post reports that roughly 30 coal-fired electric generation plants have been started or finished since 2008. Talk about dumping a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, these are the traditional "dirty" coal plants. According to the Post:

Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide.

Why not other power sources?

Utilities say they are clinging to coal because its abundance makes it cheaper than natural gas or nuclear power and more reliable than intermittent power sources such as wind and solar.

When you plug in your Chevy Volt, you probably will be using electricity generated at a dirty coal-fired plant. I hope you will feel all green and virtuous.