Cleveland-Cliffs and the Department of Energy announced a significant shift in their steelmaking strategy at the company’s Middletown, Ohio facility. The steel producer will abandon its previously announced transition to clean energy production and instead continue operating coal-fired equipment at the plant.
The original project, announced in 2024, had secured up to $500 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program. That initiative was designed to support first-of-a-kind technologies aimed at advancing industrial decarbonization in the United States. The Middletown facility had been selected from over 400 competitive applicants as a demonstration project for a unionized, coal-based integrated mill modernizing to cleaner steelmaking methods. The initial proposal called for replacing the coal-fired blast furnace with a 2.5-million-tonne hydrogen-ready Direct Reduced Iron plant and two electric melting furnaces, which the company had stated would make the facility the most advanced, lowest-emission integrated iron and steel operation globally.
Under the revised plan, Cleveland-Cliffs is instead pursuing a permit for an advanced natural gas cogeneration plant, a technology the company already operates at several other blast furnace facilities. Environmental advocates and community groups expressed concern that the revised approach represents a departure from the original vision and does not meaningfully reduce pollution levels in the area. Current data indicates that Middletown Works ranks among Ohio’s top 10 industrial polluters for multiple emissions categories. Health impact estimates suggest the facility’s current pollution levels contribute to significant annual health effects in surrounding communities.
The announcement drew responses from environmental organizations and community representatives, who characterized the decision as a step backward for the region. They noted that modern steelmaking investments had been expected to provide long-term economic and environmental benefits to communities in the Midwest, reversing patterns of industrial disinvestment in the region.
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