Say It Ain't So, Joe

I'm a big fan of Joe Nocera, columnist for the New York Times (formerly on the business pages, now an Op-Ed columnist). But today, well ... OK, everybody's allowed an off day, right?

Today's "Sunday Review" section of the Times carries a long front-page piece by Nocera, extolling the joys of the Chevy Volt. For those of you who aren't "car guys" like me, the Volt is an electric-gas hybrid, running first off its electric battery and then, when the battery is drained (after about 40 miles) switching seamlessly over to a traditional gasoline-powered combustion engine.

Nocera sounds almost like a GM press guy as he waxes poetic about "the smugness I felt as I drove past gas stations", and about how he was "pleasantly surprised by the car’s power, pickup and handling."

What was most fun, Nocera writes, is the gauge in the $41,000 car that lets you follow your gasoline usage over time:

By the time I gave the car back to General Motors, I had driven 300 miles, without using another drop of gas beyond the original two gallons. I’m not what you’d call a Sierra Club kind of guy, but I have to tell you: I was kind of proud of myself.

Joe, maybe you should be more of a Sierra Club kind of guy, because nowhere in your piece did you mention the ugly truth about electric vehicles: Yes, electric-powered fleets of cars in the U.S. would mean fewer imports of oil from the Middle East, but, alas, most electricity in the U.S. is generated in dirty dirty dirty coal-fired plants.

Despite the coal industry's frantic "clean coal" campaign, coal isn't clean. Not when it's being extracted from the earth; not when it's being transported to power plants; not when it's being burned to generate electricity.

To ignore the issue entirely, Joe, is irresponsible. The (petroleum-based) energy you saved was offset by the (different-fossil-fuel-based) energy you consumed.

'Fess up. Please.