The Sustainability Ninjas love lists. Especially lists that help us and our readers identify the evil corporations that are defacing and poisoning the planet we all share. The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts has updated their list of the Top 100 corporate polluters in the U.S. for 2009, which “identifies the top U.S. air polluters among the world’s largest corporations.

The index relies on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) project. The starting point for the RSEI is the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which reports on releases of toxic chemicals at facilities across the United States.”

Here are the first bunch, and you can find the full list here.

Here are the top 10 worst polluters, along with their Toxic score (pounds released x toxicity x population exposure):

* E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. – 285,661
* Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) – 213,159
* Dow Chemical – 189,673
* Bayer Group – 172,773
* Eastman Kodak – 162,430
* General Electric – 149,061
* Arcelor Mittal – 134,573
* U.S. Steel – 129,123
* ExxonMobil – 128,758
* AK Steel Holding – 101,428