Environmental groups demand Nippon Steel work to cut emissions after buying U.S. Steel

With U.S. Steel’s $14.9 billion sale to Nippon Steel made official last week, environmental advocates say it’s time for corporate leadership to take make real strides toward limiting pollution.

“U.S. Steel has gotten everything that it wished for in this deal with Nippon,” said Matt Mehalik, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Breathe Project. “That means there can be no more excuses from a company notorious for making promises and backing away from them. The capital and investments are there to end the emissions problems at U.S. Steel.”

On top of the sale price, Japan’s largest steelmaker has agreed to invest up to $14 billion into U.S. Steel facilities, including $1 billion to replace or upgrade the Mon Valley Works hot strip mill.

But little has been said about how Nippon might work to reduce U.S. Steel’s emissions of greenhouse gases and chemicals tied to a host of health conditions.

That’s why environmental advocates, including those based in Western Pennsylvania and Indiana, home of U.S. Steel’s Gary Works, gathered Tuesday night for a virtual news conference. (The late time was chosen to accommodate Japanese media, as well.)

“This moment is not about a business transaction,” said Qiyam Ansari, president of Valley Clean Air Now, a group pushing U.S. Steel to clean up its operations in the Mon Valley. “It’s about whether we continue to be a sacrifice zone.”

If anything, advocates say, Nippon has signaled a doubling-down on coal-based steel production by promising to reline or repair six U.S. Steel blast furnaces by 2030, contradicting its stated goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050.

Nippon declined to comment on how it plans to reduce harmful emissions, including in the Mon Valley.

U.S. Steel spokesman Andrew Fulton said there “are still many things to be determined about how the two companies will come together,” but environmental stewardship is front of mind.

The company remains committed to the safety of communities where it operates as well as its employees, he added.

Nippon is pinning much of its environmental hopes on Super COURSE50, a proprietary technology that cuts carbon emissions from blast furnaces by about a third in its current state. Companywide adoption would be a big deal — Nippon is the world’s fourth largest company in an industry that produces about 8% of global emissions.

But Roger Smith, Asia lead for industry climate monitor SteelWatch, pointed to Super COURSE50 as evidence of Nippon’s fixation on incremental improvements, rather than converting to lower-emitting electric arc furnaces. And it’s unclear whether the technology would reduce the release of toxic chemicals.

U.S. Steel has paid nearly $64 million in air pollution enforcement actions, fines and settlements related to the Mon Valley Works since the start of 2020, including more than $7.4 million this year alone. Its facilities in the area may be tied to higher rates of asthma, cancer and other diseases.

Furthermore, U.S. Steel, along with dozens of other industrial polluters, requested a two-year presidential exemption earlier this year from portions of the Clean Air Act. According to an Environmental Defense Fund database, President Donald Trump has yet to make a decision.

Ansari said he has heard nothing from Nippon to suggest it plans to operate differently. In fact, he and others on the call said their communities haven’t heard directly from Nippon, at all.

“Respond to our letters,” Ansari said. “We’ll be happy and willing to meet with Nippon. We’ve reached out, done press releases, sent emails, certified letters. We haven’t sent a smoke signal yet. I think we can consider this a smoke signal.”