Except we are in the US, which is blessed with 27% of the world's coal reserves (by far the largest; Russia is second with 17%).[1] So there is no reason we would burn oil to generate power.
Even better would be generating all that electricity with Nuclear power, since the "middle east" of Uranium is Canada and Australia, with 28% and 22% of global production, respectively.
Of course there are better options than to use oil to generate electricity. But what I am interested in is: what is more energy efficient? x million combustion engines or a few centralized power station plus x million electric cars?
Even better would be generating all that electricity with Nuclear power, since the "middle east" of Uranium is Canada and Australia, with 28% and 22% of global production, respectively.
[1] http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infosheets/coalreserves.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium#Supply