Shapiro, Davis celebrate at Cleveland-Cliffs
BUTLER TWP — Gov. Josh Shapiro visited the Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works plant Friday, April 12, to celebrate the finalization of U.S. Department of Energy standards that will allow the company to continue making grain-oriented electrical steel.
The department extended the time Cleveland-Cliffs has to adapt its GOES to the department’s new energy standards from three to five years. On Friday, Shapiro said his office communicated with the department the importance of Butler Works to the Butler County economy, helping lead to the adjustment of the standards.
“We engaged with the Department of Energy directly at the highest levels to make sure while they were crafting that final rule they had this plant in mind,” Shapiro said. “To make sure the final rule reflected the critical role this plant and the 1,300 workers, including 1,100 UAW members clock in here … and allow our country to move forward.”
Shapiro visited the plant with Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, and Cleveland-Cliffs chief executive officer Lourenco C. Goncalves. The visit commemorated not only the changing of the rule, but the bipartisan cooperation that helped convey to the Department of Energy the importance of Cleveland-Cliffs.
Shapiro thanked Democrats and Republican politicians alike.
The initial rule from the Department of Energy, which gave Cleveland-Cliffs three years to improve its grain-oriented electrical steel to levels currently attainable only by using amorphous steel, would have put Cleveland-Cliffs out of business, according to Goncalves.
“We wanted to make sure this final rule was written in a way that protected the jobs here and made sure that we didn’t have to come back and worry about this every year,” Shapiro said. “We feel really good about this final rule that’s going to protect the jobs and give us a real great runway to the future.”
Jamie Sychak, president of United Auto Workers Local 3303, introduced the speakers, and said state leadership helped keep the Butler Works plant open.
“Never has this mill been faced with a threat to its existence so real as we faced last January when we were presented with a rule proposed to distribution transformer efficiency,” Sychak said. “This rule threatened to take that market completely away by 2026; this was going to replace (grain-oriented electrical steel) with a material known as amorphous metal.”
Davis said the governors’ office relayed to the Department of Energy the closure of Cleveland-Cliffs would have ramifications on a majority of people living in Butler County and the nearby area.
“The impacts of these closures on hardworking families are real and they’re felt for generations,” Davis said. “Local schools are impacted, mom and pop businesses close shop, families are unable to make ends meet. Many choose to leave their home to find a better opportunity and a better life for their families.”
Goncalves said the company will be able to expand its production thanks to the Department of Energy’s ruling, and as well as a $75 million grant the Butler Works plant is set to receive.
“There’s a shortage of transformers in this country,” Goncalves said. “Manufacturing needs electricity, electricity needs transformers. So we‘re not going to only invest in Butler … We’re going to invest at Armco to produce more transformers.”
Goncalves said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is slated to visit the Butler Works plant in 10 days.
Shapiro noted Pennsylvania steel plants were integral during World War II, when the U.S. needed materials to create weapons for the fight. He said steel plants continue to power the nation and provide jobs to people across the country.
“I don’t just view this place as a place for the history books, I view this place as a place that will define our future in this commonwealth and in this country,” Shapiro said. “What is manufactured here is going to help continue to give us freedom, it’s going to give us jobs and more jobs and it’s going to help us power this country further.”
Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey had a virtual news conference celebrating the Department of Energy’s rule change. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, held a town hall before the rule’s finalization and later released a statement celebrating the rule’s adjustment.
Kelly, along with other legislators, introduced the Distribution Transformer Efficiency & Supply Chain Reliability Act of 2024, also known as Senate Bill 3627, which aims to balance the implementation of energy standards.
