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August 22, 2026 - Vice President J.D. Vance was joined by U.S. Department of Energy officials in Middletown to announce his hometown steel mill was getting a $500 million grant.
“This is a great day to be a resident of Middletown, Ohio. This is a great day to be right here in southwestern Ohio,” Vance said.
But what wasn’t discussed was that that $500 million had been originally awarded to Cleveland-Cliffs to help reduce pollution at its flagship Middletown Works plant by the Biden administration.
The plan had been to replace its coal-dependent blast furnace the company uses in steelmaking with electric furnaces that can be powered by hydrogen.
Now, the steel manufacturer wants to stick with coal. It plans to put the money towards refurbishing its blast furnace, upgrading material handling equipment, and installing a cogeneration plant to partially power Middletown Works (formerly operated by AK Steel). Artificial intelligence (AI) will also be integrated into its manufacturing processes.
The project is still awaiting a green light from environmental regulators before construction can begin.
White House and company project economic gains for Middletown
The steel mill has long been central to Middletown’s economy, with the facility being more than a century old. Vance’s grandfather worked at the facility for nearly 40 years, back when it was owned by Armco Steel.
“Today his grandson stands here as the vice president of the United States. It's an amazing thing,” Vance said.
“And I'm here with a message from the president of the United States. The future of America, the future of the United States, the future of our homes and communities is going to be built right here in Middletown, Ohio.”
Combined with a matching investment from Cliffs, the total cost of the project will be $1 billion.
The Middletown plant is most known for manufacturing automotive-grade steel.
The company says the project is expected to preserve 2,300 jobs and create 1,500 construction jobs.
According to a press release from Cleveland-Cliffs, the project “will improve overall energy efficiency, reduce reliance on externally supplied electricity, and lower operating costs.”
Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ chairman and CEO, stated that they worked with the Trump administration and Department of Energy to develop a project "reliant on proven technology that improves operational efficiency and competitiveness."
"The DOE’s support for this project is a testament to the importance of preserving the blast furnace route to produce automotive-exposed grade steels in the U.S., while advancing American energy dominance."
WYSO previously reported that Cleveland-Cliffs planned to abandon the hydrogen-based project and had been looking at using the $500 million to double down on coal.
Goncalves told shareholders last year the company had to abandon the project because “it’s clear by now that we will not have availability of hydrogen.”
Stamped out emissions reductions
The benefit of hydrogen, environmentalists say, is that it doesn’t create carbon emissions when used as a fuel source. Cliffs estimated the hydrogen project would’ve reduced 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
A group of locals and environmental advocates were outside the plant protesting at one of the entrances.
"I just want a cleaner air to breathe for everyone in the community. Relining that blast furnace ain't going to do nothing but put more pollution on everybody in this whole community, not just my house," Ballinger said.
Local law enforcement eventually told them they had to move off of the property.
Ballinger lives a few paces from Cliffs’ property line. She’s long had complaints about the facility’s air pollution impacts. This includes her fear that the plant pollution is behind her family members’ cancer, including her brother who died less than a month ago from cancer.
“My sister's died, my dad's died all from cancer. And we've all lived here, all of our lives.”
Cleveland-Cliffs’ project hasn’t been officially signed off by environmental regulators, though. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency still has to approve an air pollution permit for the facility.
The permit states there will be “significant emissions increases” for six air pollutants once the requested components are installed.
The new investment won’t have any bearing on the agency’s decision about the permit, according to an email from Ohio EPA public information officer Dina Pierce.
“Ohio EPA reviews air permit applications for compliance with environmental regulations and technical standards. Financial considerations to build projects are not part of the review or decision-making,” she wrote.
The review of public comments made about the permit is ongoing, and the agency intends on making a final determination “within the next few months.”
Plan with Palantir
In April, Cleveland-Cliffs also announced a new partnership with Palantir to deploy AI technology to modernize its operations. Last year, Goncalves told shareholders the company intends to fully operate the blast furnace at its Middletown Works using AI.
It’s not clear whether Palantir’s technology is what will be used to update its blast furnace operations. But the three year agreement will be “at the center of Cliffs’ key internal processes in operations and commercial.”
“By leveraging Palantir’s enterprise AI platform, Cliffs is embedding artificial intelligence directly into production planning, order entry, and operational workflows to better integrate data, anticipate constraints, and coordinate activities across its facilities in real time,” the company wrote in its April announcement.
The upgraded blast furnace is expected to be live by the year 2030. |
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