A $500 million federal grant originally meant to help decarbonize steelmaking has been repurposed by the Trump administration to upgrade a coal-burning blast furnace in southern Ohio. Cleveland-Cliffs confirmed that the U.S. Department of Energy changed the scope of the plan.
The move reverses a Biden-era effort to cut emissions from steel production, a major source of industrial carbon dioxide. Instead of supporting clean steel technologies, the funding will now be directed at a coal-fueled facility.
The change underscores the administration's departure from climate-focused industrial policy. Few other details about the new project scope have been made public.