North Carolina's mystery energy source

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley must think that electricity just oozes out of the ether, free for the picking. How else to explain his enthusiasm for a network of electrical outlets along highways to allow drivers to recharge their plug-in hybrids?

Believe it or not, this is our governor speaking, as relayed earlier this week by the Asheville Citizen-Times:

Progress Energy and Duke Energy have agreed to install a statewide network of stations along the highways where motorists can charge their cars like a cell phone or even sell back to the companies their unused power.

"It sounds like the Jetsons to you, doesn't it?" Easley asked an audience of hundreds at a summit on energy at N.C. State.

"Let the word go out today," he said, "that we are ready to develop the Wolfpack Power Pack," referencing the mascot of N.C. State.

It does sound like the Jetsons. Especially when you consider that electricity demand already tasks the existing power plants. Duke, for example, recently won approval to build a new 800 MW coal-fired plant just this side of Charlotte to meet rising demand. (Never mind the fact that other states are denying their utilities' applications for new coal plants, thanks to the fact that we'll never reduce greenhouse gas emissions unless we stop building new ones and shut down those still operating with a decade or so. I've blogged about that and will again.)

But wait, there's more:

The state is looking for an automaker to design a car that would use the battery. Talks with General Motors have started, Easley said.

Easley said auto companies have avoided building plug-in hybrids so far because of a lack of demand -- gas prices above $3 a gallon have taken care of that, he said -- and because a battery hasn't been perfected.

The demand for plug-in hybrids is actually quite serious. The fact that it costs $10,000 ;;;;; and your warranty ;;;; to add a plug-in system to a Prius is what's holding back many drivers.

This is not to say that plug-in hybrids aren't a bad idea. And Easley's heart is in the right place. But if reality's not an issue, why not call for a fleet of all-electric vehicles? Unfortunately, until we figure out where the electricity is going to come from, the outgoing governor should just take a deep breath and figure out another way to secure his legacy for the state. I'd be much happier if he led a movement that saw a moratorium on new fossil fuel power plants, a phaseout of the existing ones, and endorsement of clean alternatives, such as the Solar Grand Plan, which would involve spending $420 billion over the next 40 years to bring about this vision:

A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050

A vast area of photovoltaic cells would have to be erected in the Southwest. Excess daytime energy would be stored as compressed air in underground caverns to be tapped during nighttime hours.

...

A new direct-current power transmission backbone would deliver solar electricity across the country.

What we really need is people like Easley to get behind such schemes and commit individual states to pay their share of the solar installation and the new DC grid. THEN we could think about the plug-in hybrid revolution.

As it stands, it's just another example of a politician putting the cart before the horse.

Oh, and in case anyone thinks $420 billion over 40 years is a lot of money, it isn't. We already spend upwards of $69 billion of taxpayers money each year subsidizing energy production, $9 billion going to nuclear alone.