Are you aware of the environmental policy positions taken by the nation's leading emergency road service provider? Let the facts speak for themselves.

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See more articles on AAA in 'AAA Watch', a column in our monthly eNewsletter Kicking Asphalt.

Tow Truck Drivers Don't Like AAA
Kicking Asphalt - - February 2008

AAA of Northern California: A Green Light in the ...
Kicking Asphalt - - November 2007

AAA Sponsors NASCAR, Which Goes Nowhere
Kicking Asphalt - - October 2007

AAA, National Review Believe America Loves Inanim...
Kicking Asphalt - - June 2007

AAA: Florida Cities Can't Ban Cell Phone Use
Kicking Asphalt - - February 2007

Forget Alternative Fuels, AAA Wants to Subsidize Oil Companies
Kicking Asphalt - - August 2006

AAA Stirs Resentment With Aggressive Marketing of Plus Program
Kicking Asphalt - - April 2006

Frustrated with Your Socially-Irresponsible Business? Do what AAA Employees Do: Join BWC
Kicking Asphalt - - January 2006

Pennsylvania Clean Air Council Makes Monkeys Out of AAA
Kicking Asphalt - - December 2005

From: New Jersey Policy Perspective: July, 2006
Mapping the Route to Dollars: AAA Mid-Atlantic's Four-State Tour
By Sarah Stecker

AAA Club South Won't Treat Partners as Spouses: November, 2005

Capital News Service: April 28, 2005
Tax Dollars Paid for AAA's Driving Law Lobby Poll
By Sarah Abruzzese

SierraClub.org: January 14, 2003
AAA -- Who Knew?

Harper's Magazine: May, 2002
Smitten with a Club / AAA Paves the Road to Hell
By Ken Silverstein

USA Today: April 23, 2002
AAA Faces a Fork in the Road
By Jayne O'Donnell

The Amicus Journal: Winter 2001
Feature Story -- The Secret Life of AAA
Along with the maps, the insurance, and the late-night tows, your friendly all-American auto club has a political agenda. And it's no good for the environment.
By Michael A. Rivlin

USA Today: September 30, 1999
AAA cars not to blame for major U.S. air pollution: Cars and light trucks are no longer the major source for smog and ozone pollution in most major US cities, according to a report released by the American Automobile Association (AAA) yesterday.

ENS: September 29, 1999
Don't Blame Cars for Smog, AAA Says
Federal regulators should refocus efforts to cut air pollution away from automobiles, the motorists’ advocacy group AAA said today.

New Dream Action Network: Ask AAA to end its 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' lobbying policy

September 29, 1999 - AAA Press Release
Car's Contribution to Smog Declining --Now less than 24%

This press release accompanied its 1999 report "Clearing the Air". AAA has accused Better World of "lying" or "a lack of integrity" when we described the thrust of AAA's report: that public policy should lay off the automobile when it comes to air pollution. Well, here's the press release and you can decide who has a "lack of integrity".

You have to deny that automobiles cause air pollution
(Source: AAA: Automobiles not Responsible for Pollution: Cleaning the Air Study-1999)

As reported by the Environmental News Service in September, 1999: "'Federal regulators should refocus efforts to cut air pollution away from automobiles', the motorists' advocacy group AAA said today". "Clearing the Air - 1999" is the third such study performed by AAA.

AAA weighs in on highway funding, suburban sprawl, mass transit, car design and safety, air pollution, and global warming. (Source: The Amicus Journal: Winter 2001: Feature Story: The Secret Life of AAA)

Because, using its members as collateral, AAA, its local affiliates, and its partners work to influence national law and policy, and not to the good of the planet. Almost without exception, critics say, it advocates policies that damage the environment and endanger health.

"A lot of people belong to AAA because they think it's a nice place to get Triptiks and traveler's checks," says Daniel Becker, director of Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "What they don't know is that AAA is a lobbyist for more roads, more pollution, and more gas guzzling."

Environmentalists challenge AAA's conclusions
Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program said in a statement, "It sounds like AAA has been breathing too much smog. A third of the nation's smog and 20 percent of the nation's global warming pollution spew out of America's tailpipes. With asthmatic children being hospitalized at an ever increasing rate, it is foolhardy and callous for AAA to imply that now is the time to let up on auto pollution."

The EPA did not challenge AAA's numbers, but a spokesman for the agency said the group's conclusions may be "shortsighted." The agency is committed to reducing emissions from all sources, according to EPA spokesman Dave Cohen. "This is not a contest," Cohen said. "Letting motor vehicles off the hook for their past performance is not a useful way of combating air pollution."

You Oppose Bike Paths????(AAA position--ISTEA Legislation-1991)
The bicycle community considers AAA to be anti-bicycle. Rails to Trails was astonished to find AAA opposing the conversion of certain rail right-of-ways to bicycle paths in the early 90s. But astonishment is too soft a word for the feelings of many bicycle advocates: "AAA has a vested interest (or so they think) in continuing the "cars first" transportation policies that has guided our country for the past 50 years… Please write so AAA knows that there are members who want a balanced, environmentally-friendly, community-friendly transportation system." Is the comment of one of many cyclists on just one bicycle mail serve website.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi, cohosts of the radio show "Car Talk," have accused the American Automobile Association's Foundation for Traffic Safety of issuing a misleading press release on the effects of cell phone use and driving safety.

"A press release that garnered extensive national media attention for its surprising results is based on flawed research and is a gross misrepresentation of reality", according to the Magliozzis. "It's time we made the roads safe once again. We'd like a retraction and an apology from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety."

Just because your battery dies, do you need to associate yourself with this policy agenda? We don't think so.

AAA is a registered trademark of American Automobile Association.

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