Shannon Van Hoesen, shannon.vanhoesen@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC - Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced it will invest nearly $2 billion to build a direct reduced iron (DRI) facility at Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas. The DRI will provide a cleaner input to feed into the company’s electric arc furnaces that produce steel.
Nippon Steel, the parent company of U.S. Steel, noted in a press release for a Japanese audience that the investment will ensure steel remains “mined, melted, and made in America” as the global market turns “towards decarbonization.”
In reaction, Iliana Paul, Deputy Director of Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation campaign, released the following statement:
“U.S. Steel is investing in cleaner steelmaking in the South, though we hope this is the first of many clean steel investments to be announced. According to its parent company, Nippon Steel Corporation, the planned DRI in Arkansas is motivated by its desire to keep its American assets competitive as countries around the world seek to decarbonize steelmaking. On its face, Nippon Steel is keeping its promise to invest in the competitiveness of American steelmaking, yet this move does call into question Nippon’s long-term interest in revitalizing U.S. Steel’s legacy Midwest assets and supporting its union workforce. A failure to bring electric arc furnaces and DRI technologies to the heart of American steelmaking would be a betrayal to Midwest communities and workers.
“We hope Nippon Steel will stay true to its commitment to invest in ‘modern, efficient’ steelmaking by investing in the long-term competitiveness and cleanliness of U.S. Steel facilities across Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Minnesota, as well as in Arkansas. Steelworkers have worked too hard and fenceline communities have been overburdened for too long to be cheated out of the benefits of high-quality union jobs in green steel mills that keep communities healthy.”
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