An Engineer as you claim to
An Engineer as you claim to be should understand that coal != gasoline. Electricity is primarily generated from Coal or Natural Gas, while transportation fuels are primarily derived from fossil oil. They are different resources with different supply sources. Primarily fossil oil is imported which means our Gross National Product is being sent overseas to buy oil, while Coal and Natural Gas are primarily from inside the U.S. keeping that slice of the GNP within the country.
The other issue is that supplies of oil, coal and natural gas are all susceptible to a peak of production. This effect is popularly known as "peak oil". THe peak of U.S. oil production occurred in 1971 and its simply not possible to make any significant increase in U.S. oil production. Also the Canadian Tar Sands are owned by a foreign country, namely Canada, which would mean again gross national product being given to a foreign country to buy oil. Also the tar sands oil from the keystone XL project was not meant for sales within the U.S. but instead for export into the global oil market.
The point of bringing up peak oil and peak natural gas and peak coal is - that - fossil fuel supplies are going to enter a period of declining production capacity. Think that through please, what is the economic result when demand exceeds supply?