Adding to what Paddy wrote about Senator Bayh, it’s worth noting that Senator Bayh has an ugly record of taking money from one of America’s biggest air and water polluters: the AK Steel corporation. From my forthcoming book:
America’s TOP 25 Water Polluters
1. AK Steel Corp. (Rockport, IN)
2. BASF Corp. (Freeport, TX)
3. IBP Inc. (Lexington, NE)
4. Smithfield Packing Co. (Tar Heel, NC)
5. Excel Corp. (Fort Morgan, CO)
6. DSM Chemicals N.A. Inc. (Augusta, GA)
7. AK Steel Corp. (Coshocton, OH)
8. Tyson Foods Inc. (Sedalia, MO)
9. IBP Inc. (Hillsdale, IL)
10. USS Gary Works (Gary, IN)
11. Anheuser-Busch Inc. (Baldwinsville, NY)
12. US Army (Radford, VA)
13. Du Pont (Belle, WV)
14. Excel Corp. (Schuyler, NE)
15. Du Pont (Deepwater, NJ)
16. McCain Foods USA Inc. (Easton, ME)
17. J.R. Simplot Co. (Heyburn, IN)
18. John Morrell & Co. (Sioux Falls, SD)
19. Motiva Enterprises LLC (Port Arthur, TX)
20. McCain Foods USA (Burley, ID)
21. IBP Inc. (Dakota City, NE)
22. AK Steel Corp. (Zanesville, OH)
23. Samoa Pacific Cellulose (Samoa, CA)
24. Choctaw Maid Farms (Carthage, MS)
25. Taylor Packing Co. Inc. (Wyalusing, PA)Source: Scorecard.org
In 2006, Senator Bayh took $6,000 from the AK Steel PAC. $7,000 in 2004. $1,000 in 2002. Other AK Steel recipients include House Minority Leader John Boehner ($38,500 since 2000), Rick Santorum, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Bob Ney and President Bush.
Just a thumbnail about AK Steel’s water pollution issues… AK Steel has polluted the Connoquenessing Creek — the primary source of Butler, PA’s drinking water — so much so that the EPA ordered the corporation to provide free bottled water for all of the residents there. The nitrate level (nitrates cause, among other things, “blue baby syndrome”) of the drinking water was more than ten times the acceptable level.
