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Gasoline-powered cars are slowly starting to look like pirates plundering the world for fuel and slashing environmental throats as they go. Thanks to that, the fair maiden electric vehicles with zero-emissions claims and low-cost fueling can easily float in on the smog cloud looking squeaky-clean. But are they?

Electric vehicles probably seem to have a tiny carbon footprint at the surface, but a recent study suggests environmental impact varies in gravity according to where the vehicle is charged.

Automakers tout EVs as zero-emission transportation but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an environmental impact. The issue is that charging creates green house gases, and those emissions aren’t necessarily constant. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, which uses the electric power requirements of the Nissan Leaf as a basis for comparison, there is a significant disparity in greenhouse gases released into the environment depending on the source of the electricity itself.