Has anyone calculated the difference in emissions that it takes to make the energy to charge the car compared to the emissions if the car were actually gas powered?

Oh, yes. I don't have the numbers handy, but be assured, the pollution from generating the electricity is much greater than the car would produce burning gasoline. Now, this blanket statement makes some assumptions... that the electricity is produced by a coal-burning powerplant (the majority of electricity in the US is produced this way), and does not factor in the pollution created by the production/refinement of the gasoline from the original crude oil. Other factors include the pollution created by the production of the batteries in the car, and the problems of periodic replacement/disposal of said batteries.

This makes it difficult to come up with a simple yes/no answer, but if you restrict the variables to pollution emitted by the powerplant vs pollution out the tailpipe of a modern car, the car is cleaner.

Modern cars run so cleanly compared to years past that you can't even off yourself in the time-honored tradition of firing up your car in the garage and dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. Some years ago (5 years? Maybe even 10) Saab announced their new Trionic emission contol system, where they claimed that in a heavily polluted environment (say, downtown Los Angeles in rush hour) the exhaust coming out the tailpipe was cleaner than the air going into the intake.

tanstaafl.