In This Week's Phoenix: Electric Cars

I've got a cover story in this week's Phoenix about the push to make electric cars the dominant form of transportation in Rhode Island and across the country.

Rhody's size could make the state an ideal incubator for the limited-range cars which, advocates say, might represent the country's best chance to wean itself off of foreign oil and declare energy independence.

Here's an interesting point that didn't make it into the story. The environmental benefits of electric vehicles have much to do with geography: an electric car in Chicago, where power plants draw heavily on coal, is not nearly as green as a car operated in, say, Rhode Island, where we are much more dependent on cleaner electricity sources: nuclear and natural gas.

That should make you feel a little bit better shelling out all that cash for a Nissan Leaf.