"The potential sale to Nippon Steel has become a political football. But no one is listening to long-term concerns about pollution, health and global warming."
"When President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared together at a rally for union members in Pittsburgh earlier this month, Harris opened her speech with a nod to the industrial legacy of a city in a key swing state for the presidential election.
“U.S. Steel is a historic American company, and it is vital for our country to maintain strong American steel companies,” she said. “U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated, and I will always have the backs of America’s steelworkers.”
Coming weeks after former President Donald Trump made a similar statement, Harris’ speech was meant to stake out her position on what has become a major issue of the 2024 election: Japanese company Nippon Steel’s bid to buy the Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel for $15 billion.
Lost in the frenzy of national attention—and missing from the presidential candidates’ comments on the sale—are the consequences for the environment and the thousands of residents who live downwind of U.S. Steel’s three aging manufacturing facilities in western Pennsylvania."
Kiley Bense reports for Inside Climate News September 29, 2024.
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