Dirty Coal statistic of the day

A Nissan LEAF will run far cleaner in Idaho than in West Virginia thanks to vast differences in the electric grid mix in the two states.

In this installment of our overview of the best and worst states to plug in a plug-in, we list the Worst 10 States to live in the U.S. if you’re plugging a car into the grid.

What exactly will you be plugging into if you buy an EV or PHEV?

Plug-in advocates in the U.S. like to point out that coal burning accounts for a little more than 50 percent of the total electricity produced in the United States. And they correctly point out that much of the plugging in will happen at night when power plants – coal and natural gas alike – have excess capacity that's just waiting to be tapped.

But, as much as we at SolarChargedDriving.Com support plug-ins and the mission to convert America – and the world – from filthy gasoline-powered vehicles to EVs, and despite the fact that studies have repeatedly shown that plugging into a 100-percent coal-fired electric grid is generally better for the environment than driving a gas stinker around, we think it’s misleading to quote national numbers on the electric grid.

In the U.S., how clean your EV will actually be in terms of overall emissions depends in large part on where you live in the U.S. and what the electric grid mix is there. No matter where you live, you can potentially solar-charge your EV and run it clean, while activley changing the grid mix in your state!

What exactly will you be plugging into if you buy an EV or PHEV?

Plug-in advocates in the U.S. like to point out that coal burning accounts for a little more than 50 percent of the total electricity produced in the United States. And they correctly point out that much of the plugging in will happen at night when power plants – coal and natural gas alike – have excess capacity that's just waiting to be tapped.

But, as much as we at SolarChargedDriving.Com support plug-ins and the mission to convert America – and the world – from filthy gasoline-powered vehicles to EVs, and despite the fact that studies have repeatedly shown that plugging into a 100-percent coal-fired electric grid is generally better for the environment than driving a gas stinker around, we think it’s misleading to quote national numbers on the electric grid.

Thomas Edison next to a 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47. (Wikipedia.org photo)

On a basic level, today’s EVs (electric vehicles) and PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) are nothing new. Battery powered vehicles resembling today’s modern automobiles have been around for more than one hundred years.

In fact, before the dominance of internal combustion engines, electric automobiles held many vehicle land speed and distance records in the early 1900s. EVs were produced by Baker Electric, Columbia Electric, Detroit Electric, and others and, at one point in history, outsold gasoline-powered vehicles.

Below is a list of resources and web sites for EVs and PHEVs. SCD.Com is happy to consider additions to the list, which we will update, and expand, regularly. SCD.Com also welcomes invitations for reciprocal URL listing with relevant and related sites.