Since announcing Nippon Steel Corporation’s bid to buy U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have waged an aggressive persuasion, advertising, and lobbying blitz to influence elected officials to approve their takeover. They have assured stakeholders that Nippon Steel is a best-in-class steel company with a sterling environmental and labor record. However, due to Nippon Steel’s refusal to agree to concerns raised by the United Steelworkers, many have been concerned that the company would not honor the needs of retirees and steelworker communities. Nippon Steel’s revealed plans to extend the life of the most polluting parts of a steel mill currently operated by U.S. Steel leaves no doubt that the company is not acting on climate or accounting for public health.

“We learned earlier this year that Nippon Steel Company was not engaging in good faith with American workers,” said CeCe Grant, Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation Campaign Director. “Last week, we learned that Nippon Steel is also not interested in being a good partner to frontline residents near Gary Works who will be negatively impacted by decades of locked-in carbon emissions. With Black residents making up three-quarters of Gary’s residents, Nippon’s decision is tantamount to exacerbating structural racism.”

“Nippon Steel can’t be trusted to live up to their end of the bargain when comes to honoring contracts and now we see that they also won’t live up to promises to reduce emissions driving climate change,” said BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Jason Walsh. “The bottom line is that this would be a bad deal for workers, the communities around the plants, and the environment. No amount of advertising and lobbying will change that.”

“Nippon Steel already showed that it will not prioritize the people who work at the steel mills in the US when they cooked up a merger deal without even talking to the United Steelworkers. Now they’ve shown that they will not prioritize people’s health and the climate crisis. A path to a decarbonized steel industry is necessary to stop the climate crisis. That path must be forged with the people who work in the facilities and communities most impacted by them. It’s time for other options,” said Michael G. Williams, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow.

Companies like SSAB and Cleveland Cliffs, the latter of which expressed interest in acquiring U.S. Steel, are building state-of-the-art facilities and revamping legacy facilities by investing in low-carbon and less polluting innovative technologies.

Cleveland Cliffs has joined Sierra Club, BlueGreen Alliance, and the United Steelworkers in endorsing Rep. Ro Khanna’s Steel Modernization Act, which would invest billions in existing iron and steel facilities, making them cleaner and more productive all while creating and protecting good union jobs in communities that built the country.