How we generate and distribute electricity are technological and scientific questions. The answers to those questions suggest that "not in my back yard" isn't a helpful strategy. Not if we want to keep the planet habitable.
Sources
Earth photographs
The first photograph was taken in 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission crew. It is the last photo of the Earth taken from halfway between the earth and the moon. The second photograph is a 2012 composite of satellite photos.
A serious scientific debate persists over how much emphasis we should put on short-term "radiative forcing" (the technical term for the effects of greenhouse gases and other factors that change how much heat the atmosphere can hold). This review in Nature is a good place to start for an overview of the problem, It is also the core issue behind the argument in favor of using natural gas a "bridge fuel" (see this analysis, for example). But in my opinion, and that of many climatologists, the precautionary principle means we cannot affort to risk triggering a positive feedback loop in which short-term heating leads to long-term changes in the planet's thermal equilibrium. Perhaps this could have been a viable option 30 years ago, but we are too close to critical thresholds, or "tipping points," now.
Cartoon equation
The math here is a simplified calculation that omits several factors, such as the effect of aerosol pollution from coal plants, which actually offsets some of the warming effect of carbon emissions. But for the purposes of a rough estimate, the figures are useful.
Coal = 100%
Gas = smokestack emissions + fugitive emissions
@1% leakage = 40% + 1% x 86 = 126% of coal's global warming potention
@0.1% leakage = 40% = 0.1% x 86 = 48.6%