The Shuttering of Coal Plants and What It Means to Electric Transportation

Followers of social media may have noticed a significant backlash against the trend towards electrifying our energy and transportation sectors.  Perhaps this is part of some disinformation campaign created and implemented by Big Oil; I have no proof that this is the case, but it is in line with other similar PR campaigns from their past.

In any case, for at least half a century, political conservatives have been trying to make the case that EVs simply move the noxious emissions associated with transportation from the tailpipe to the power generation plant, essentially replacing petroleum with coal. See graphic below.

The people who have studied this subject honestly and objectively have consistently found that claim is largely untrue, if only due to the technology that removes the greenhouse gases, heavy metals, and radioactive isotope at the power plant.  But at this point, however that argument is becoming increasingly difficult to accept, even on the part of people who are, for whatever reason, desperate to do so, because coal is disappearing.