GARY, IN / PITTSBURGH, PA — June 18, 2026 — One year ago, Nippon Steel completed its $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel with promises of $11 billion dollars of additional investment across the company's footprint in the United States. Twelve months later, the communities on the fenceline of the company’s crumbling plants are still seeking answers to how the company intends to rectify its deadly legacy of pollution and safety failures. Community-based organizations in Gary and Pittsburgh sent Nippon Steel a formal request for a meeting in March and have not yet received a response.

Nippon Steel’s acquisition encompassed three of America’s last seven integrated mills, where blast furnaces burn coal to create pure molten iron that’s then processed into steel. It also included the Clairton Coke Works, the nation's largest coking plant and part of U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works complex outside Pittsburgh. The facility produces about a third of the country's coke. Last year, a fatal explosion at the facility killed two workers and injured 10 others. For these severe failures in safety procedures and equipment, federal regulators fined the company just $118,000.

“Nippon Steel is deploying billion dollar bandaids to keep out-dated, polluting equipment hobbling along in the Midwest instead of making world-class upgrades to protect workers and the environment,” said Iliana Paul, Deputy Director of Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation campaign. “Investing in the transition to clean, modern steel in historic industrial communities with unionized workforces is good for business, good for workers, and good for families living nearby who want to have clean air and clean water. The company needs to make good on its promises and not double down on the legacy of pollution in steelmaking for the sake of hiring non-union labor or cutting other corners.”

This acquisition carried a heavy climate cost, with U.S. Steel facilities emitting a staggering 19,384,694 metric tons of CO2e in 2023, equivalent to approximately five coal-fired power plants. Adding to the toll, these facilities release massive amounts of hazardous air pollution, including 3,955 tons of NOx, 3,402 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 1,949 tons of particulate matter in 2020. According to analysis from Industrious Labs, this pollution is attributable to over 120 deaths yearly.

In Arkansas, Nippon Steel is investing $1.9 billion in coal-free Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) technology at its Big River Steel plant. Unlike blast furnaces, which burn massive quantities of coking coal to melt iron, the DRI process removes oxygen from iron ore using gases such as natural gas or hydrogen. This technology is significantly less carbon-intensive and cuts health-harming air pollution in half.

“Blast furnaces are like the gas-guzzling boat-of-a-car that your great-grandparents drove. When the transmission goes, you can fix it or replace the car. Nippon is choosing to fix the 50-year-old transmission and calling it an investment in the future, while it buys a brand new EV for Arkansas,” said Hilary Lewis, Steel Director at Industrious Labs.

DRI already accounts for roughly 20% of U.S. iron production, a figure expected to rise as new plants like Hyundai Steel's Louisiana plant come online. Celebrating this investment in Arkansas, U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt told the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce last November that 'this is where America's next century of steel is being forged.' But Gary and Pittsburgh are not getting the same types of investment.

In Indiana, Nippon Steel has announced a $3.1 billion plan for Gary Works, but of the $900 million invested so far, the primary project is a $350 million reline of a 50-year-old, coal-burning blast furnace. Relines are a maintenance project for coal furnaces that extends their operating life and pollution. The human cost of this decision is staggering. According to an Indiana University analysis, keeping these old coal furnaces running is responsible for an estimated 93 to 187 premature deaths annually. This project will lock in 15 to 20 more years of potentially fatal health impacts for the surrounding community.

"The people deciding Gary's future are doing it in boardrooms far from our community, and won't have to breathe the air they're signing us up for," said Lisa Vallee, Organizing Director at Just Transition Northwest Indiana "After a century of carrying this industry, Northwest Indiana has earned a voice in what comes next, and a real plan for our future, not another patch on a 50-year-old furnace."

The economic consequences of doubling down on outdated technology are just as severe. Rather than securing the region's workforce, coal-based steelmaking is projected to cost Northwest Indiana 12,000 jobs by 2034 across the region’s three integrated mills, according to the same Indiana University analysis. At a recent town hall, community members voiced their frustrations over ongoing pollution and questioned whether Gary Works would be left behind as companies increasingly invest in newer, cleaner technologies elsewhere.

"US Steel's CEO tells us the future of steel is in Arkansas and that now that there's a clean way to make steel, it needs to be made elsewhere. We don't buy that," said Kwabena Rasuli, Board Member, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development. "If Nippon Steel believes faith, family, and hard work built America, then the community that built this industry in Gary deserves the same future being delivered to Arkansas. They still have billions in unspent capital, and we're asking them to invest it in a clean future here."

A similar pattern of investment is expected at Pittsburgh's Mon Valley Works. As part of Nippon’s commitment, the company has implied plans to reline all of the remaining blast furnaces. Without a plan to transition to clean, modern steelmaking, the region faces an economic cliff. Research from the Ohio River Valley Institute projects a 30% decline in steel-supported jobs in Southwest Pennsylvania by 2031 if the company maintains the status quo. Conversely, an investment in fossil-fuel-free steelmaking could actually increase total jobs in the region by 27% to 43%

"Real progress will only come when public health and community revitalization are treated as non-negotiable. Instead, after too many years of promise-breaking, we're getting another short-term investment — a fast-tracked hot strip mill that does nothing to upgrade the upstream steelmaking process and only adds to the pollution burden Braddock and its neighbors already carry," said Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project. "Until U.S. Steel shifts from fossil-fuel-based steelmaking to the fossil-free technology built for the future, that burden won't lift."

Beyond the looming job losses, this refusal to modernize risks ensuring that the Mon Valley will remain a sacrifice zone because of industrial pollution. U.S. Steel's facilities are responsible for roughly two-thirds of the fine particle pollution from industrial sources in Allegheny County, which now ranks in the top one percent nationally for cancer risk. The toll on the next generation is particularly devastating: a 2020 study found that children in the county have triple the national asthma rate, citing the Clairton Coke Works and the Edgar Thomson plant as major sources of pollution.

As the company prepares to hold its annual general meeting in Tokyo on June 23, community leaders, researchers, and steel industry watchdogs will hold a virtual press conference on June 22 at 7:00 pm ET. After a year of silence, the coalition will demand answers on the remaining capital and the unanswered meeting requests.

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Industrious Labs is a non-governmental organization dedicated to transforming heavy industry to drive solutions that cut pollution, create good jobs, and build healthier, more equitable communities. Learn more at www.industriouslabs.org.