August 15, 2026 - Cleveland-Cliffs plans to redirect a $500 million federal grant intended to slash greenhouse gas emissions at its Middletown steel plant. Its new plan maintains the coal-burning blast furnace that was slated to be replaced.

Company CEO Laurenco Goncalves told securities analysts last month that Cliffs had “made major progress on the re-scoping of the Middletown project in compliance with the Trump administration’s energy dominance goals.”

He gave some clue as to what was in store, saying the blast furnace in Middletown “is due for a reline by 2030, and this [Department of Energy] grant will allow us to go further in optimizing the furnace and maximizing energy efficiency by capturing and using blast furnace gas to generate electricity on-site.”