I was born in Indiana, and I've lived my whole life in the Hoosier State (except for 4 remarkable months in 1991 where I was a student teacher and guest of the Navajo Nation). I'm concerned about the environment, climate change, and pollution. Indiana ranks 48th out of 50 when it comes to the highest levels of air and water pollution.
I’ve made it my mission on Daily Kos to document some of the worst polluted sites and costliest cleanups in Indiana. Interestingly, some of these environmental disasters are deeply tied to the Pence Family. Therefore, avoiding politics is impossible. Indiana is a deep red state that’s had a Republican Supermajority in charge for over a decade, and the laws and decisions made by these GOP legislators tend to favor the polluters while they screw the working families.
I’m not a journalist, so these entries are going to mainly be about what I’ve read and researched on my own, what I’m going to seek out and photograph, and what I can surmise from it all. I invite the reader to take the journey along with me.
Let’s start with Kiel Bros. Oil Company and some basic facts.
From what I’ve gleaned through simple searches on the web, this company was started in 1960 by businessman Carl Kiel as an oil distributor. It expanded into the gas station / convenience store business. It operated under names like KP Oil, Tobacco Road, Pick and Pump, and Daddy Lowbucks. At its height, Kiel Bros. Oil operated 210 stores and 90 wholesale-fuel dealer locations in three states. It also employed over 1,350 people. The former Headquarters was in Columbus, Indiana. Kiel Bros. Oil Company filed for bankruptcy on June 15, 2004. Much of the mess that was left behind is still in the process of being cleaned up, and the cost of that cleanup is still being footed by working families, rather than the Pence Dynasty.
So how does the Pence family come into play, here? Let’s spend a little time writing about them, and how they tie into Kiel Bros. Oil Company.
Out-of-staters are most familiar, I’m sure, with Mike Pence. Former Vice-President of the United States (paired with the twice impeached Trump). Former one-term Governor of Indiana. Former Congressman from Indiana. Former far-right-wing radio talk show host.
What a lot of people from the rest of the country don’t know is that Mike has an older brother, Greg, who currently “serves” as a member of the US House of Representatives from Indiana’s 6th District. I wrote “serves” in parenthesis because, in reality, he does almost nothing in Congress and campaigns for office every two years with the platform, “I’m Mike’s brother.” And he wins by wide margins because … you know … this is Indiana, and in most of the state all a candidate needs to win is that "R" by the name on the ballot.
Mike and Greg’s father was Edward Joseph Pence Jr (1929-1988). Edward was a Chicago-born Korean War veteran, who later became a gas station owner, and worked his way up to become Vice President of Kiel Bros. Oil Company in the mid-1970’s. Mike Pence says that he worked for the business starting at age 14. His older brother Greg, however, took over after their father died, and he eventually became President of Kiel Bros. Oil Company. Just as Kiel Bros. went bankrupt in 2004, Greg Pence resigned as President of the company.
I should disclose that, at this point, almost everything that I’ve learned about Kiel Bros. Oil Company and the ties that the Pence family has to it is because of the outstanding work of AP reporter Brian Slodysko, who wrote the article “Cleanup of Pence family gas stations cost Indiana more than $20 million” on July 14, 2018. I admit that I am using his article as a framework and hoping to glean more information firsthand. I encourage anyone interested to read his piece.
Slodysko wrote in 2018, that Greg Pence, before the 2004 bankruptcy, was also on the board of a local bank that loaned $16 million to the floundering Kiel Bros. Oil Company. Greg and Ted Kiel (son of the founder of the company) had personally guaranteed the loans, and records show that they promised to repay outstanding debts with their own assets, according to Slodysko. (I'm no lawyer, but the fact that Greg Pence was on the bank board, approving loans to the company that he led, seems to be a huge conflict of interest.)
But Kiel Bros. Oil went bankrupt, and the cleanup costs went to Indiana taxpayers. Slodysko wrote that Mike Pence lost $600,000 after the bankruptcy. Yet, according to the article, when he became Indiana Governor in 2013, Mike Pence’s assets were somewhere between $532,000 and $1.13 million. Slodysko also wrote that when Greg Pence first ran for his brother’s old Congressional seat in 2018, his assets were worth between $5.7 million to $26 million.
Mike Pence was Governor, and later Vice President of the United States. Greg Pence was (and still is) a US Congressman. They both held great wealth. But their old company was bankrupt, most of the gas stations were abandoned, many were leaking toxins into the ground and water supply, and the costly cleanup was paid for by working Hoosiers (and working families in nearby states). Many of the old sites are still sitting here in disrepair, and some may have also caused environmental disasters. The Pence family seems to have washed their hands of any responsibility.
As I wrote, this is my starting point. I will update this with personal observations / photos / and hopefully interviews as they come.
I would also like to send out an invitation to anyone interested who was employed by Kiel Bros. or who has undergone hardship because of the aftermath and cleanup ... I'd like to talk to you firsthand. Please contact me through Kos. I'd be be grateful to add your voice to those entries, even if our politics or point of view differs.