Last week was a tough one for proposed coal plants in Montana --the Bull Mountain plant near Roundup hit a permit snag and an environmental group filed a federal lawsuit to stop the Highway Generating Station near Great Falls -- but coal-plant woes aren't limited to Montana.

Across the country, prospects for new coal-fired generators just keep getting blacker.

According to a front-page Wall Street Journal story last week, plans for coal plants are falling by the wayside from coast to coast because conventional coal-fired plants are seen as too dirty and cleaner plants are seen as too expensive.

The main problem has to do with the nearly universal scientific acceptance that human activities -- especially production of carbon dioxide -- are spurring global warming. With global warming doubters increasingly relegated to the status of evolution deniers, the threat of climate change has become politically powerful and is putting more and more plans for new generating plants on the shelf.

The Journal cited a long list of derailed coal proposals, some by a failure to receive permits but more "simply wither away, lost in the multiyear process of obtaining permits, fending off court challenges and garnering financing."

In the West, the state of Washington has joined California in prohibiting utilities from making new deals to buy electricity from plants that aren't as clean as modern gas-burning plants, and Oregon utility regulators recently blocked a plan to charge consumers for part of the cost of building new coal plants out of state.

Just last Thursday U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will do "everything I can" to stop construction of three large coal-fired power plants in his home state of Nevada. "All these power moguls want to do is to steal our air and water," he said.

Well, they also want to meet the country's demand for electricity, which is growing at an annualized rate of 2.7 percent so far this year. If the current trend against new coal plants continues, the pressure for alternative sources such as nuclear power will only grow. And so will worries about higher prices and possible shortages. Alternatives won't show up overnight.

We're all for renewable energy -- wind, solar, you name it -- but we need to think hard about all our alternatives because doing without electricity isn't going to be one of them.