A new study from the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute builds on local groups’ advocacy for green steelmaking in Northwest Indiana.

“Jobs in the Balance: Building Toward a Clean Steel Transition in Indiana” is a newly released report from the institute that looks specifically at Northwest Indiana’s steel plants. The report recommends that U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs plants modernize and use direct reduction and electric arc furnace technologies, expand renewable generation and transmission infrastructure, and center public health and community revitalization.

If those actions aren’t taken, the report warns that the region could lose 12,000 jobs in the next decade. A transition to clean steelmaking could lead to seven times more jobs by 2032, according to the IU Environmental Resilience Institute.

The study also claims that modern, clean steelmaking technology in Northwest Indiana could reduce “cancer-causing air pollution” by 80%, and it costs between $1.5 and $3.6 billion per facility to invest in the technology.

“Northwest Indiana is basically the heart of American steel,” said Gabriel Filippelli, executive director of the Environmental Resilience Institute. “The main fuel to make steel has been using the heat provided by coal and coke, which is just a coal derivative. … They’ve been chugging along with that old technology that’s driving steel production, but a lot of the country and world is looking and turning toward cleaner steelmaking technologies.”

The study’s goal was to learn what the cost of green steel would be in the region, Filippelli said, and what would be the impact on jobs, the environment, and public health.

Study authors used information from health agencies and pollution reports reported by area facilities. The numbers for jobs and costs came from analyzing facilities that have had similar transitions.

U.S. Steel responded to the study’s findings in a statement, saying it “peddles a false narrative on both jobs and the realities of current steelmaking.” The study was based on modeling and projections rather than daily operations of a steel mill, according to U.S. Steel.

“This report advocates for technology that is not currently accessible or affordable at steelmaking scale and has never been economically feasible without major government subsidies,” a U.S. Steel spokesperson said in an email statement. “As such, it generates misleading headlines and hides what these groups are calling for: for U. S. Steel to tear down its integrated steelmaking operations and cost nearly 4,000 people their jobs as a new facility is built.”

Even then, the plant wouldn’t be capable of “making certain high-demand grades of steel,” according to the company, which they argue would weaken its competitiveness and ability to provide well-paying jobs. The cost to tear down and rebuild Gary Works with electric arc furnace technology would exceed the estimates in the report, according to the company.

“As usual, authors of these studies demonstrate a fundamental lack of insight into the economic and technological realities of the steel industry, as well as zero concern for the job losses their recommendations would cause,” the email statement said. “Our commitment to invest $11 billion across our U.S. footprint by the end of 2028 will improve efficiency and make the steel we produce cleaner and higher quality. This is the pathway to delivering real environmental benefits and generational job security to the communities where we live and work — not technology that is not ready to scale and create jobs.”

A Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gary Advocates for Responsible Development has pushed for the use of direct reduction furnaces at Gary Works, and member Carolyn McCrady said the report mirrors what GARD has found.

“It’s not a coincidence,” McCrady said. “We have both done our research and found that through the modernization of steelmaking processes, we can break with the dirty, destructive, obsolete blast furnace technology of the past, and embrace the new, cleaner, more efficient technology known as direct reduction.”

According to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, direct reduction creates sponge iron, which “is produced in a reactor by direct reduction of iron ore in solid form, utilizing natural gas as the reducing agent to produce pellets or briquettes.” Direct reduction can create iron, but the process itself cannot create steel.

Direct reduced iron, or sponge iron, is consumed by electric arc furnaces rather than blast furnaces. At Gary Works, blast furnaces produce pig iron, which is then used to create high-strength steel. According to U.S. Steel’s website, the company has electric arc furnaces at a facility in Alabama and another in Arkansas.

U.S. Steel will receive a reline for blast furnace #14 this May, which will cost $350 million and take 100 days, ending in August, according to previous information from the company. The reline is funded through Nippon Steel’s $3.1 billion investment into Gary Works.

“I’m not a businessman, but looking at it from a scientific perspective and an apples-to-apples comparison,” Filippelli said, “I would want to invest in this newer thing that is cleaner and healthier for the environment and the people of Northwest Indiana.”

As the blast furnace relining looms, McCrady said this study is important. She worries that the Gary Works’ blast furnace will need another reline in about 10-15 years, and she worries that U.S. Steel will be behind other corporations that transition to clean steelmaking.

McCrady said GARD and other advocacy groups are also worried Northwest Indiana will be left behind as companies invest in clean steelmaking in other areas of the country.

“If it’s good enough for Arkansas, then it’s good enough for Gary,” McCrady said. “This is a national movement and a global movement because the plant is imperiled by the burning of fossil fuels.”

Filippelli encouraged groups like GARD to continue advocating for a green steel transition in Northwest Indiana.

“The science is behind you,” he said. “You have a reason to want nicer, newer technologies. Not just for the people who work at those facilities, but the hundreds of thousands of people who call the region home.”

mwilkins@chicagotribune.com