Drive Green With AAA
Renewable energy — By Stephanie on January 6, 2009 at 9:00 am
Drive Green in 2009 Through AAA
My family has a AAA (American Automobile Association) membership, which is a wise annual investment, by the way! In a single year, we had my car towed 3 times due to its age and continual breakdowns. Aside from free towing, you can also enjoy discounts at many travel accommodations, restaurants and car rental agencies.
But, I’m not here to sell you on AAA. I am excited about the new Drive Green program offered to AAA Oregon/Idaho members (yours truly included).
By purchasing the optional Drive Green package through AAA, members can help cut down on global warming emissions by supporting renewable wind energy development. Drive Green provides a link to the carbon offset program established by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a non-profit organization. Using carbon offsets, coal-generated electricity and gas can be replaced by clean wind energy.
Clean, green wind energy through the Drive Green program
How does it work? Quite simply! For only about $25 a year, AAA motorists can offset the CO2 impact of driving 5,000 miles. Don’t think that 5,000 miles is enough? Purchase another block of 5,000 miles of carbon offsets for only $18.50!
Its quite a small investment if you think about it. Many of us will drop $25.00 in an evening just for a fast food dinner for 4. Not only can you feel a lot better (mentally and physically) by participating in Drive Green, but you can also get a window sticker for your car to show your participation in the program. AAA will even throw in a reusable canvas shopping bag.
But wait – there’s more! As a Drive Green member, you are eligible for a 30% discount on “greening” your home or business through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. You can also sign up for the Drive Green newsletter, which includes lots of other green tips.
Dave Carlson of AAA explains why you should consider signing up:
“Well, it’s more than a charity because with a charity you never quite know where the funds are going. We’ve been working with the Bonneville Energy Administration, a non-profit group, out of Portland that has for years been trying to come up with ways to repair watersheds in that region or introduce new power sources again like wind and solar.”
If going green is a New Year’s resolution for you in 2009, AAA gives you a simple, easy way to start. Who’s with me? I am going to Drive Green this year! Are you?
Tags: AAA, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Drive Green
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5 Comments
Hi Stephanie, Thanks for driving green and supporting our partnership with AAA Oregon/Idaho We enjoyed your blog – keep up the great work – Pat Nye, Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you – and I’m glad you found our blog post. Drive Green is a super idea and its wonderful that you’ve partnered with AAA.
Cheers, Stephanie
For the past year I have been researching into the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s(BEF) carbon offset program. BEF is known by some as one of the nation’s leading carbon offset providers in the nation.
My audit of BEF projects reveal that they failed to prove additionality or to show proper monitoring or verification for all of their claimed carbon offsets.BEF even hired a third party carbon offset certifier, Green-e, to bring credibility to BEF carbon offsets, yet Green-e’s certification process does not test for additionality and fails to accurately monitor or verify emissions reductions.
In summary, BEF carbon offset funds paid for projects that were already going to be built, did not reduce emissions directly or at all, and used a portion of the proceeds for watershed restoration (not for offsetting emissions).
Currently, consumers of BEF Carbon Offsets such as AAA customers should not have any confidence that their purchase of carbon offsets has any effect on greenhouse gas emissions whatsoever.
The full in-depth audit can be found here: http://cascadepolicy.org/pdf/20100324ClimateSwindle.pdf
-Todd Wynn
Climate Change and Energy Policy Analyst
Cascade Policy Institute
Just stumbled across this update and wanted to weigh in on a couple of things. First, thank you for supporting AAA’s Drive Green program. You are making a real difference.
Regarding the post above, as with any source of information, it’s worth paying attention to the motivations of the source. The Cascade Policy Institute works to discredit climate change and organizations working to provide solutions to climate change. The report referenced is full of mis-representations. Anyone interested in more information can go to the BEF website http://www.b-e-f.org
Heidi Eggert
Bonneville Environmental Foundation
Thanks Heidi.
For future reference, Cascade Policy Institute’s stance on climate change can be found here: http://www.cascadepolicy.org/climate-change/
The report has clearly shown that BEF carbon offset funds paid for projects that were already going to be built, did not reduce emissions directly or at all, and used a portion of the proceeds for watershed restoration (not for offsetting emissions).
Todd Wynn
Climate change and energy policy analyst
Cascade Policy Institute