On environment, AAA gets F

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The next time you call AAA for a jump start, don’t tell the dispatcher: “My car’s the one with the Nader 2000 sticker.”

Recent Must Reads

1/25 – Dubya’s a Dog

1/24 – Men in tights (that fit)

1/23 – Torch your backyard

1/20 – Zimbabwe’s schools suddenly empty

According to the Natural Resource Defense Council’s AMICUS JOURNAL, the century-old group has a political agenda, and it’s anything but green. Over the years, AAA has lobbied for more roads, more cars, and more gasoline use. The group has opposed everything from the Clean Air Act to public transportation — in effect, anything that might discourage Americans from driving.

What’s worse is that AAA does most of its anti-environment lobbying without the knowledge or approval of its 43 million members. “People don’t join AAA for ideological reasons,” says John Kaehny, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “My parents are AAA members, and when I tell them what the AAA national office does, they go, ‘Oh my God, is that true?'”

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate