Depends on where you live.  Here on the left coast we get most of our power from hydro.  We are also building out wind and solar farms.  4 years ago, the US didn't make wind turbines.  Today, we make 60% of the turbines we install here, and that number is going up.

We need to stop burning carbon, but even if you do burn coal in your area, It's cleaner to burn it in a central plant, and use it in an electric vehicle, than to get the same vehicle miles from gasolene.

I should also note that a gas car will get more expensive to own over time.  An SUV that gets 17.5 mpg will burn over $45,000 in gas over the course of 200,000 miles.  An electric vehicle costs about one seventh that amount to operate in my area.  And that assumes gas remains no higher than 4 bucks.  The 39,000 you save in gas makes the expensive electric luxury car cheaper over the course of it's life.  Once people do the math, there will be significant appeal.

I like those guys that bring stats from no-where just to look serious... The God Problem, where have you been fishing that US didn't make wind turbine 4 years ago???

GE wind was making 4 billion $ worth of them... and yes General Electric is American... ask Thomas Edison... oh and was doing 8 billions of thermal at the same period... and 200 millions in hydro

Electric car is not a carbon saving thing, since there is already a lack of green energy even in the west coast. If you raise the demand for electricity by 100% in the next 10 years, you are going to get that 100% from non green source...

Here in Quebec, where 98% of our electricity is clean, we either wouldn't have any impact on the planet since  we sell our surplus of green electricity to the USA. If we use that energy, then the USA carbon plants start smoking more...

Before thinking about cars, we need first to address the electricity issue, witch seems to be a much bigger problem.