Yes the meme of the "coal powered car". TBF, I wouldn't mind that at all. That means we could be domestically self sufficient with our energy needs. Not to mention it's a lot easier/cheaper to have one big coal plant with one set of emissions controls, rather than thousands of gas engines with controls in various states of maintenance and disrepair.

Imagine the converse. If we had electric cars today and were proposing moving to liquid fuels. No one would recommend it. "Hey what if we brought all the pollution closer to us and where our families live. That sounds like a great idea!"