Quote of the Day: Those Dirty Dirty Chevy Volts

I found this fascinating ... and actually rather logical when you think about it. If you haven't been hearing the buzz, the Chevy Volt is a new plug-in hybrid, that is its a car that runs on a battery that you can plug into an electrical outlet to recharge.

[Driving the Chevy Volt] won't be "petroleum-free" in much of the country -- because so many utilities use heavy fuel oil to generate that electricity. At current electricity-production levels, these plants emit as much as hundreds of thousands of cars on the road each day. If a few thousand well-meaning dupes plug a few thousand new Chevy Volts into electrical outlets (especially in urban centers), you could actually add millions of pounds of dangerous, dirty, unregulated pollution and carbon into the air we breathe -- possibly more pollution than would be offset by putting the Volts on the road.That's if the electricity grid can handle the added load. In fact, all across the nation, the grid is fragile, antiquated and maxed out.

Another reminder to watch out for green fakes ...

Hat Tip: American Public Media's Marketplace