Electric Vehicles and Coal Plants, BFFs

It's battery operated. The electric vehicle, or known as the cute abbreviated EV, is taking California by storm with 30,000 expected on the highways in three years.
Free and clear. The earth is sighing. It's the end of global warming as we know it. Except...where does electricity come from? Oh yeah, coal. So instead of burning fuel, they are forcing additional usage of coal.

Laugh. It's okay. Environmentalists want to be mocked. They have a difficult life, outwitting themselves.

Bring on the electric cars! We need more coal plants. TIME online has the story. I have the sarcasm. Here we go.

Dave Kaufmann likes people yelling at him as he drives through La Cañada, Calif., the wealthy suburb north of Los Angeles where he lives. What they're shouting about is his battery-powered electric vehicle, one of up to 30,000 estimated to hit the streets of Southern California in the next 36 months, the biggest expected e-car surge in the country.
"They all want to know, 'What's that? Where can I get one?' " says Kaufmann, a home contractor and self-taught electric vehicle, or EV, enthusiast.

Wealthy people are evil, with their lusty coal-burning vehicle desires.

By some accounts, the next 10 years will see as many as 1.6 million electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles zipping around the state, in what is shaping up to be the nation's e-car proving ground....

Californians are just not happy without blackouts.

But utilities are working feverishly to put infrastructure standards in place; the prospect of managing rapid EV growth has utility executives both amped up over the opportunity and queasy about unplanned snafus...

Candles set a lovely mood at home or in the office, supermarket, gym, or even inside operating rooms.

SoCal Edison provides electricity to 13 million people and is the biggest power player behind the new EV push...

The government will need to cap those windfall profits. People stay poor in Obama America, fellas. Nice try, though.

One part of SoCal Edison's ramp-up involves the installation of 5.3 million SmartConnect meters in every home throughout its 50,000 sq. mi. service region, from the Pacific Ocean to the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and into parts of Orange County. Total installation is expected to be completed by 2012 at a cost of $1.9 billion. But much more will be needed to handle the widespread adoption of EVs, the utility says.

And where is that $1.9 BILLION coming from? Not passed on to the electricity customers, surely.

While EV owners can charge the cars by plugging them into a regular 110-volt outlet, the "slow charge" can take up to eight hours and may jack up an electric bill the equivalent of 2 kilowatts per month. Most e-car owners will eventually want to plug in their faster, highway-approved EVs into new rapid-charging, 220-volt garage chargers. But that requires another step: finding a certified electrician and several thousand more dollars to install the add-on feature to the home or garage.

Wait. Several thousand? Ballpark it. Are we talking 2k? 25k? Plus higher electric bills to cover the $1.9 BILLION? And didn't Obama say his Cap and Trade plan will cause electricity prices to "necessarily skyrocket"? So electricity will cost more and you'll be using more of it...The price some people will pay to burn coal.

EV's: the Future looks Dim.