ONE OF THE OLDEST and lamest arguments against electric vehicles is called the “long tailpipe.” EVs aren’t any cleaner than gasoline-powered cars, this song goes; they just move their greenhouse-gas emissions to the power plants charging the grid.
It is certainly true that EVs are only as clean as the grid that charges them. But the United States power grid is getting cleaner all the time, due mostly to the decline in the use of coal, down about 20% in a decade. In February the Environmental Protection Agency released its...