Cleaning up one of PA’s largest air polluters

This summer, the Biden administration proposed new safeguards to reduce toxic air pollution from dirty steel facilities here in Pennsylvania and across the nation. The proposal would cover 14 facilities nationwide that process coal for use in steelmaking, including 2 major polluters right here in the Keystone State. One of these facilities is U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, located just outside of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The Clairton Coke Works is the state’s largest industrial emitter of cancer-causing benzene, responsible for 40% of all benzene emissions reported in Pennsylvania from industrial air polluters. It’s also the source for a whopping 97% of all benzene emissions reported in Allegheny County from industrial air polluters. 

The good news is that the Biden administration’s proposed health standards would require the Clairton Coke Works to cut benzene levels by 90%, so demonstrating support for these new protections from concerned Pennsylvanians is critical.

Unfortunately, polluters have been calling for the Biden administration to weaken the rule by removing the critical protections around benzene.

To neutralize that opposition, the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center jumped to action to ensure Pennsylvanians knew about this proposal and could have their voices heard in support of clean air. 

During the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment period, PennEnvironment staff and volunteers mobilized nearly 1,000 Pennsylvanians to submit official statements of support to the agency. We also worked with more than 40 state and local elected officials to send formal comments to EPA in support of the proposed rule. To help educate the public about this important opportunity, PennEnvironment staff helped concerned Pennsylvanians from across the Commonwealth to submit letters to the editor to further educate local residents about this proposal, and calling on the implementation of the rule. This included a letter to the editor from one of PennEnvironment’s student interns that was published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Clean air can be a reality for those living near the Clairton Coke Works and beyond, but only through strong action to rein in polluters and their dangerous pollution. PennEnvironment will continue to urge the EPA to adopt this proposal as quickly as possible to guarantee the health protections that Pennsylvanians need and deserve.