MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Cleveland-Cliffs is considering moving away from plans announced earlier in March to overhaul the ironmaking systems and installing a new environmentally friendly system at the Middletown Works, a plan the company said would ensure union steelworkers in Middleton remain “at the forefront of the global steel industry.”
Cleveland-Cliffs said in March that the funding would largely come out of $6 billion that the Biden Administration earmarked for slashing emissions in the industrial sector. Cleveland-Cliffs said that Department of Energy selected it for an award.
The company told the Journal-News that it would receive $500 million that would be used to help to decarbonize its Middletown plant and would keep 2,500 jobs at the plant.
But Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves told Politico the company’s commitment is in jeopardy.
“I’m still trying to figure out if it even makes sense with the grants because the grant is $500 million, …