U.S. Steel Tariffs Helping to Clean Up the Environment in Pennsylvania

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign steel imports are helping to clean up the environment in Pennsylvania while boosting investments in American manufacturing workers.

This week, U.S. Steel announced it will invest more than $1 billion to turn its Mon Valley Works operations, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into the “most innovative steel mill in the United States of America,” according to CEO David Burritt.

U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works includes the Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania — which has been operating since 1872 — the Clairton plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, the Irvin steel mill in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and the Fairless Plant in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. Overall, the Mon Valley Works operation employs about 3,000 American workers.

The investment is set to help significantly reduce emissions by building a new sustainable facility at the Edgar Thomson plant — the first in the U.S. Similarly, the steelmaker will build a new cogeneration facility at its Clairton Plant that will include “state-of-the-art emissions control systems” in order to convert a portion of its coke oven gas into electricity to power its Mon Valley Works operation.

U.S. Steel executives said in a statement that the investment will result in a 60 percent emission reduction of Particulate Matter, a 50 percent drop in sulfur dioxide, and an 80 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide.

The sustainable approach by U.S. Steel was spurred by Trump’s 25 percent tariff on foreign steel imports, where particularly cheap Chinese steel was dumped into the U.S. economy and devastated U.S. steelmakers and American steelworkers.

Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have been a boon to America’s working and middle class, especially those who live in areas that were devastated by decades of free trade. As Breitbart News has chronicled, U.S. has been crucial in reviving the country’s steel mills.

In Granite City, Illinois, Trump’s tariffs helped bring back 800 American steel jobs at the steel mill that had closed in 2015 because of free trade with China and resulted in the layoff of about 2,000 Americans.

In Jefferson County, Alabama, Trump’s tariffs have allowed U.S. Steel to continue construction of its electric arc furnace that has created 600 construction jobs and is set to add 150 jobs to the community. At the Gary Works plant in Gary, Indiana, U.S. Steel announced last year that they would be investing $750 million into the plant which employs about 3,800 American workers. The investment was due to Trump’s steel tariffs, executives said.

Likewise, the tariffs are set to create 140 American jobs at a Lone Star, Texas, pipe mill. The plant was previously idled because of unfair foreign competition.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.