Canceled Climate Grants Would Have Cut Pollution While Boosting Production, Jobs at Two Alabama Ironworks

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Two iron pipe manufacturers in Alabama learned last week they lost a combined $150 million in promised federal funding that would have increased productivity and employment while slashing greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution.

The grants, $75 million each, were issued to the American Cast Iron Pipe Company in Birmingham and the U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company in Bessemer through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to replace older coke or gas-fueled blast furnaces with electric induction furnaces.

The projects were estimated to cut the greenhouse gas emissions at U.S. Pipe by 73 percent and at American Cast Iron Pipe by 62 percent.

“This project is expected to reduce the cost of operations, improve manufacturing capacity, and e