Updated Indexes from UMass Amherst Name Nation’s Most Prolific Polluters

Political Economy Research Institute Rankings Track Corporations Causing the Most Greenhouse Gas, Air and Water Pollution

Source: UMass News and Media

Marathon Petroleum, Vistra Energy, Standard Industries and Dow are among the nation’s largest corporate polluters, according to updated data released today by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI).

“The Greenhouse 100 and Toxic 100 indexes inform consumers, shareholders, regulators, lawmakers and communities about corporate releases of toxic and climate-altering pollutants into our environment,” says professor Michael Ash, co-director of PERI’s Corporate Toxics Information Project. “People have a right to know about their exposure to toxic hazards. Legislators need to understand the effects of pollution on their constituents.”

“People have a right to know about their exposure to toxic hazards. Legislators need to understand the effects of pollution on their constituents.”
-Michael Ash, Co-director of the Corporate Toxics Information Project.

The Greenhouse 100 Polluters, Suppliers, and Coal indexes and Toxic 100 Air and Water Polluters indexes track the environmental performance of U.S.-based industrial activity using uniform, mandated and comparable measures collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 2022, the latest year for which complete data was available. The PERI analysis builds on EPA facility-level data and expands the focus to corporate leadership. It also draws on environmental justice (EJ) indicators to assess unequal impacts on low-income and minority groups.

A free, open-access online search tool provides information on every company, not only the top 100, reporting to the EPA Toxics Release Inventory, the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program or the Energy Information Administration-7A Coal Mine Survey. Archives of earlier editions are also available.

The Greenhouse 100 Suppliers Index ranks companies by their supply of products that result in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when released, combusted or oxidized.

The top four firms are petroleum refiners: Marathon Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Valero Energy and Phillips 66. Marathon, Exxon Mobil and Phillips also extract natural gas. The top four each produced fossil fuels that yielded at least 240 million metric tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions. Fifth-ranked Peabody Energy and sixth-ranked Arch Resources are on the list due to coal mining. Rounding out the top 10 are Chevron, Enterprise Products Partners, PBF Energy and PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company.

The Suppliers Index also offers state-level rankings for the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels supplied within their borders.

The Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index ranks companies by direct emissions of GHGs from their facilities.

The top three companies are Vistra, Southern Company and Duke Energy, continuing a five-year period in which these firms have been the top three. Each released more than 75 million metric tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions. Together, these three companies released 4% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from all sources, including non-energy sources. The rest of the top 10 in the Greenhouse 100 are Berkshire Hathaway, American Electric Power, Energy Capital Partners, Exxon Mobil, Xcel Energy and Entergy, with the federal government ranked seventh. The top company whose direct emissions are not dominated by electric power plants is Exxon Mobil at No. 8. Among the top 10, Energy Capital Partners has the highest weighted share of racial minorities living within 10 miles of its facilities.

Both Greenhouse 100 indexes are based onthe EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program with additional information from the Energy Information Administration Mine Survey.

The Toxic 100 Air Polluters Index tracks total potential chronic human health risk from toxic chemical pollutants released into the air.

Standard Industries tops the list, followed by Greenbrier Companies, Huntsman, Kaiser Aluminum, Tesla, Garmin, Carpenter Technology, Becton Dickinson, Edwards Lifesciences and LyondellBasell Industries. For nine of the top 10 companies, just one or two chemicals at a single facility accounted for the vast majority of toxic air pollutants, indicating the potential to make significant improvements by focusing on a handful of facilities.

The EPA assesses not just how many pounds of pollutants are released, but which are the most toxic and who is exposed. For example, EJ indicators show that while racial minorities make up just under 40% of the U.S. population, they bear 74% of the air-toxics risk from facilities owned by Standard Industries.

The Toxic 100 Water Polluters Index ranks companies by potential chronic human health risk by the pounds of toxics released into surface water or sent to water-treatment systems, adjusted for chemical toxicity.

The top five companies are Dow, Huntsman, Xylem, Celanese and Exxon Mobil. Although Dow is linked to 16 facilities in the water pollution database, the vast majority of the company’s total water hazard weighted by the toxicity of each chemical is from 1,2,3-Trichloropropane at its Freeport, Texas facility. Using EJ indicators, the index reveals that minority groups bear 66% of Dow’s toxic hazard from water releases and transfers to water treatment facilities.

The air and water indexes are based on the EPA Toxics Release Inventory and Risk Screening Environmental Indicators.

“In making this information available, we are building on the historic achievements of the right-to-know movement,” Ash adds. “Our goal is to engender public participation in environmental decision-making, and to help residents translate the right to know into the right to clean air, clean water and a livable planet.”

The indexes cover both publicly traded and privately held companies that appear in Forbes, Fortune or S&P rankings.