Ada Recinos, Deputy Press Secretary at ada@sierraclub.org (Pacific Time)
WASHINGTON, DC – Since Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation announced its intention to buy U.S. Steel several months ago, it has waged an aggressive campaign of public pressure, backroom lobbying, and threats to sway decision-makers to approve the deal. On October 2, 2024 the Sierra Club, and major international organizations sent a letter to lawmakers from some of our key manufacturing states to urge them to oppose the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel Corporation, citing serious climate and labor concerns.
“Sierra Club calls on members of Congress to oppose a deal that is bad for the climate, workers, and environmental justice communities,” said CeCe Grant, Director of Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation Campaign. “Nippon Steel’s refusal to meaningfully engage with residents and workers in Pennsylvania and Indiana is cause for alarm. Nippon cannot be trusted to own so many critical steel assets needed to respond to growing demand for a clean energy economy.”
Sierra Club’s letter describes its opposition to Nippon’s Plan for U.S. Steel, based on the following concerns:
- Increased Pollution and Health Risks: Nippon Steel's plan to lock in US Steel’s coal-based processes will extend pollution, causing premature deaths and restricted workdays in communities near steel facilities.
- Missed Opportunity for Cleaner Steel Production: Innovative technologies, like those planned by SSAB Americas and Cleveland-Cliffs, offer a cleaner, more sustainable way to produce steel that reduces carbon emissions and creates good-paying jobs.
- Failure to Modernize Risks Assets: Nippon Steel’s focus on coal threatens the future of historic U.S. Steel assets, including Mon Valley Works and Gary Works, by locking them into outdated, polluting processes, all while failing to modernize and transform Granite City and Great Lakes Works
- Potential Job Losses: Relying on coal will likely lead to further job losses in the industry, especially in facilities in Illinois and Michigan where layoffs have already occurred.
- Undermines Clean Energy Transition: The merger undermines efforts to modernize U.S. steelmaking and hinders the U.S. from becoming a leader in clean energy infrastructure, jeopardizing projects that rely on clean, new, high-quality steel.
QUOTES FROM ENVIRONMENTAL, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES:
Eric Engle, Parkersburg, West Virginia, President Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action: "We have got to eliminate the demand for the mining of coal across the board. Coal mining has devastated many of my fellow West Virginians and their communities with slurry impoundments, ash ponds, flattened mountains, filled valleys, other air, water and soil pollution and contamination, and the enormous toll taken by black lung disease. All this to say nothing of the fact that the burning of coal is the largest human-caused contribution to global climate destabilization. We have got to move on from coal use entirely for ourselves and for posterity.
Dorreen Carey, Gary, Indiana, President, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD): "GARD believes it is not too late to get US Steel, and/or its potential future owners, to make the investments needed to replace all of Gary Works’ blast furnaces, and to fully modernize the mill by investing in new green iron and steel making technology that will protect resident health and environment, and ensure the sustainability of the mill itself."
Jack Weinberg, Gary, Indiana, Chair, Green Steel Committee, Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD): “The country’s fifteen remaining blast furnaces will, almost certainly, all shut down over the next fifteen or so years. If Gary Works does not replace its blast furnaces with the next generation of ironmaking technology, the mill will close soon after its last blast furnace shuts down.
Susan Thomas, Michigan City, Indiana, Director of Legislation & Policy: "Nippon has an abysmal environmental track record in Japan and globally. Indiana needs sustainable sources of energy to future-proof industry jobs here. Not more coal burning."
Qiyam Ansari, Clairton, Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania Field Organizer, Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter and President of Valley Clean Air Now: "I am deeply concerned about Nippon Steel’s recent announcement to invest $1.4 billion in U.S. Steel’s assets, including the Mon Valley Works in Pennsylvania and Gary Works in Indiana, with plans to extend coal-based processes. This decision not only continues the toxic legacy of pollution but also threatens the health and well-being of thousands of families who live near these facilities. For decades, communities like mine have borne the brunt of emissions from coke ovens and ironmaking facilities, leading to elevated rates of asthma, heart disease, and cancer."
Trevor Dolan, New York, NY, Evergreen Action Senior Industry and Workforce Policy Lead: “Nippon Steel’s announcement that they will double-down on dirty, expensive fossil fuels in their proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel is out of step with our burgeoning clean energy economy and throws communities that have faced decades of underinvestment under the bus. Instead of tying American steel to expensive and polluting coal-based processes that have devastated frontline communities, Nippon Steel must change course and deploy the modern technologies steel plants need to compete in a rapidly decarbonizing world. Investing in proven low-carbon industrial technologies is the only path to cleaning up a major source of climate pollution, reinvigorating domestic manufacturing, and providing relief to overburdened frontline communities.”
Patrick Campbell, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania, Executive Director, Group Against Smog & Pollution: “The Pittsburgh region has been absolutely bombarded by ads touting how the Nippon-U.S. Steel merger would be a game changer for both the industry and the Steel City, but it looks to us like the companies are taking cues from their same old, tired playbook. As this plays out on the world stage, it’s the people who live in and around U.S. Steel’s polluting facilities like the Mon Valley Works, and the employees who work there who are left hanging in the balance. And U.S. Steel certainly knows that. Consider the latest threat - that U.S. Steel will shut down its blast furnaces in the Mon Valley and move its headquarters out of Pittsburgh if the merger doesn’t go through. But that’s honestly what we are used to around here – empty promises, followed by lip service, followed by threats like these. Whatever happens, we need to remember the actual humans who are at the heart of this deal and how it impacts them, our public health and our environment.”
Background
The implications of the sale elicit various concerns from civil society, environmental organizations, and federal agencies. September 23 was the deliberation deadline for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the unit of the Treasury Department that is investigating whether the merger would be a national security risk, citing concerns about relying on a foreign government for a critical product for our infrastructure and transportation. It has been extended by 90 days.
Letter: Environmental Community Opposes Nippon Steel's Plans |
October 2, 2024 Senator Bob Casey Senator Gary Peters Senator John Fetterman Senator Debbie Stabenow Senator Todd Young Representative Summer Lee Senator Mike Braun Representative Frank Mrvan Senator Dick Durbin Representative Nikki Budzinski Senator Tammy Duckworth Representative Shri Thanedar
Dear Members of Congress, The steel industry is a cornerstone of our modern economy yet a major source of health-harming pollution. Innovative technologies offer a proven path to produce steel with dramatic reductions in climate pollution and health risks to local communities. For months, environmental organizations and consumer advocates have given space to our allies in the labor movement to center their serious concerns about Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel. While the media has focused on whether this acquisition is bad for national security, we are concerned about the future of marquee and historic facilities. For too long, economic policies have benefitted corporate polluters and Wall Street over workers and communities. Multinational trade deals and corporate raiders have padded the pockets of CEOs while exposing working-class families to toxic pollutants, climate disasters, and layoffs. Steel and ironmaking are responsible for 11% of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. Further, the soot from a handful of facilities in the United States—facilities in your districts—are responsible for as many as 3,000 premature deaths and 700,000 restricted activity and work days per year. Now, Nippon Steel has announced it intends to extend the industry’s toxic legacy with a $1.4 billion gamble tying U.S. Steel assets like Mon Valley Works in Pennsylvania and Gary Works in Indiana to expensive and polluting coal-based processes, all without addressing fugitive emissions endemic to ironmaking. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are solutions that create good-paying jobs, cut and control pollution, and advance resilience. These solutions are the surest ways to protect steel and iron manufacturing, alongside a rich clean industrial ecosystem that creates further prosperity. For example, SSAB Americas is planning over a billion dollars in new investment towards the first industrial-scale fossil-free iron facility. In addition to the jobs and investment in the facility, the plant would rely upon green hydrogen and clean energy to produce the hydrogen. The pure iron manufactured would be made into steel at an existing facility in Iowa. The Iowa facility will expand, and manufacture of steel needed for wind towers vital for energy security will grow. Cleveland-Cliffs, which employs thousands of represented workers, is planning noteworthy clean investments across multiple facilities. Instead of relying on coal, its Middletown, Ohio facility would adopt a shaft furnace that can use gas or cost-effectively harness hydrogen. Its Butler, Pennsylvania facility will move towards electrification. And its Weirton, West Virginia tinplate mill will reinvent itself as an electrical transformer production plant—making use of the steel produced in Butler—to solidify the company’s place in the clean energy transition. These examples demonstrate the rich industrial ecosystem in reach when companies avail themselves of innovative technologies—and federal incentives—to detach from coal, control their toxic pollution, and build out the clean energy economy. Moreover, the energy-savings from the transition away from coal promises a pathway for iron and steel facilities to become more efficient producers. Nippon Steel’s fixation on coal-dependence would be the death knell for U.S. Steel facilities. In addition to Nippon Steel’s refusal to make investments in the long-term sustainability of Gary Works and Mon Valley Works, the company has no forward-looking plans for Granite City, Illinois and Great Lakes Works in Michigan, where U.S. Steel recently laid off thousands of workers. Nippon Steel’s bet on coal and disregard for innovation lock in the path dependence that led to U.S. Steel’s diminished position, as well the company’s troubling retreat to states that restrict unionization and lack clean energy standards. Research suggests that continuing to rely on coal will lead to more job losses, further diminishing the manufacturing skilled workforce. By limiting U.S. Steel assets to a coal-based future, Nippon Steel shows it does not have its heart in leading the United States’ primary steel capabilities into the 21st Century clean energy economy. Rather, it will cast aside U.S. Steel’s former grandeur, and scrap metal assets—unfit for projects ranging from offshore wind to bridges and lacking the volume to meet demand from growing infrastructure investment—will become U.S. Steel’s sole fief. Clean and competitive investments in facilities that Nippon Steel Corporation seeks to acquire would be a boon for workers, for communities, and for the national project to domesticate critical material and energy production. By fostering innovation here, as SSAB and Cleveland-Cliffs plan, the United States will also be primed to counter adversaries’ multi-billion dollar infrastructure investment campaigns, building turn-key steel and ironmaking facilities worldwide to advance prosperity and environmental stewardship. In your communication with the White House and other stakeholders, please express your concerns about climate consequences, community health burdens, and the erosion of the domestic industrial base. Thank you for your commitment to industrial and environmental issues, and we look forward to engaging with you further on this topic in the coming months. Sincerely,
Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance Appalachian Voices Breathe Project Brown Faces Green Spaces Center for American Progress Climate Justice Alliance Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD) Group Against Smog & Pollution Evergreen Action Indiana Conservation Voters Industrious Labs Interfaith Power & Light Just Transition Northwest Indiana Just Transition Team-MI League of Conservation Voters Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition Michigan Interfaith Power & Light Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action PennFuture Public Citizen Sierra Club Valley Clean Air Now West Virginia Environmental Council West Virginia Highlands Conservancy West Virginia Rivers Coalition 1worker1vote cc: Senator Roger Wicker, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Representative Mike Ezell Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Joni Ernst, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator JD Vance, Representative Warren Davidson Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Representative Carol Miller Representative Mike Kelly
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.