> A 15-pound lithium-ion battery holds about the same amount of energy as a pound of oil.

After you burn the oil, you can't do much else with it. On the other hand, you can't do much with the battery without an energy source. Comparing the weight of oil to a battery is apples and oranges.

> “That electricity has got to come from somewhere. It’s not going to come from solar farms and wind turbines,” he said.

Maybe not today. But in time, I see no reason why most of it can't come from renewable sources.

This "article" definitely has a point of view. The alternative isn't really explored. What if we shut the coal plant down today, and just didn't run the battery plant? Then we'd have less batteries, and presumably more ICE vehicles burning fuel. It doesn't do the full analysis. It's just a spicy headline.