Assuming this is a good faith question, the pollution generated by ICE cars driving 1+ metre away from me pollutes the air I breathe in a much more concentrated way than the pollution generated by a power plant 10+ miles away.

Air pollution in cities is a real problem that nobody really talks about because there's no easy solutions.

I don't drive an EV, because it's not practical / affordable for me yet. I hope this changes soon.

Besides the fact that a coal-burning plant is more efficient, one difference is a cleaner city. Another difference is that it can be charged from other sources, e.g. solar at home. Another difference is that the grid is typically a mix, not just coal. And another difference is that the battery is basically an abstraction which abstracts away the power supply so this becomes a different (easier) problem to fix.

Why do you find it useful to bring up this trope which is only tangentially related to the post?

If you want to know there’s plenty of reliable sources like the doe (and if you want confirmation bias rather than facts, there’s plenty of unreliable sources)

Last time someone made a comment like yours, I actually tried googling and there’s a doe site that actually tells you the carbon emissions by state for an ev, hybrid or normal gas car given that states specific energy sources.

Even W Virginia, the worst state I could find, having about 90% coal, gives much lower emissions for an ev than a gas car. And that’s with the current mix. It’s only getting better from here. And that’s the worst state!

Here you go https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric_emissions.html

Gasoline will always come from dead dinosaurs and plants but electricity doesn't come from 100% coal. And the ratio dropping changing fast as other forms get more inexpensive.

here's an article I usually reference when this kind of question comes up:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170417164448/https://www.vanco...

tldr;

    In dirty electricity regions, driving on electricity creates similar climate pollution to gasoline.

    Regions that burn mostly coal and natural gas to generate electricity create high levels of climate pollution for each kWh. In Alberta, for example, a Plug-In Prius will cause a similar amount of climate pollution driving on gasoline as it does driving on Alberta's electricity.

    Some electric car owners have worked around this problem by putting up their own solar panels, or by purchasing cleaner electricity directly from their utility.