Senator Joe Pittman today called on the governor to aggressively promote Indiana and Armstrong counties as the location for two proposed steel mills as a way to counter the substantial losses of local jobs if Pennsylvania joins the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) compact.
US Steel announced its plans last week to build a state-of-the art $3 billion “mini-mill” in the United States. The company is currently looking at potential locations for the facility. Nucor Corporation announced on Monday plans to build a $2.7 billion mill, with potential locations including Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
In a letter to the governor, Senator Pittman urged a strong bipartisan effort to bring these “generational economic opportunities” to Indiana and Armstrong counties.
“I appreciate the recent offers to develop ‘playbooks’ for ideas on how to mitigate the negative impacts of RGGI on the district I represent. The playbook is pretty simple: Replace the jobs and property tax revenue lost by prematurely shutting down carbon emitting sources of electricity production,” Senator Pittman said. “Securing these projects for development in Armstrong or Indiana County would go a very long way in replacing the family sustaining wages and property taxes lost as a result of RGGI.”
Contact: Jeremy Dias jdias@pasen.gov