Weirton, WV: Renewable Energy Plant Coming On Site of Once Thriving Steel Mill, Jobs Hope: Biden Act

A Renewable Energy Plant Will Rise In US Where A Steel Mill Once Stood, The Guardian, Aug. 14, 2023. Ed.

- Communities hope good new jobs will come from Biden’s historic climate investment in cities like Weirton, West Virginia

A cutting-edge energy storage company is building its main manufacturing plant where a once-thriving West Virginia steel mill once stood in the city of Weirton. According to lawmakers, the much-lauded project was made possible by incentives from 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed by President Biden one year ago this Wednesday. For supporters, it’s a sign that climate policies can also breathe life back into deindustrialized coal and steel communities with green jobs.

The symbolism is compelling but how much those communities benefit will depend on a wide array of factors. Form Energy, a Massachusetts-based company helmed by a former Tesla vice-president, broke ground on its iron-air battery manufacturing plant this past May. Workers will produce batteries capable of storing electricity for 100 hrs, which will run on iron, water & air instead of the more common but less-abundant metal lithium. The $760m project will create 750 well-paying permanent jobs, the company said.

The plant is being constructed on the ashes of the old Weirton steel mill, once the beating heart of the steel economy in the Ohio River valley.

At its height in the 1940s, the mill was West Virginia’s number one taxpayer and its largest employer, boasting a 13,000-strong workforce. “You could literally graduate one day from high school and be hired at the steel mill making very good money,” said Mark Glyptis, president of the United Steelworkers Local 2911 and a 3rd-generation steelworker from Weirton. But Weirton’s economy began to wither in the 1970s. Local industry slowly declined as the market began to prefer cheaper foreign steel – and, Glyptis said, stopped enforcing regulations on the material.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. The fallout, said Glyptis, has been “heartbreaking”. “It changed the landscape and the community has suffered significantly,” “Our children, many of whom were planning on staying and living in the valley, have had to leave the valley to seek employment somewhere else.” After the decline of domestic coal and steel, West Virginia transitioned from a production-based economy to a service-based one. This was a major blow to residents’ economic wellbeing..Challenges, the future. - Read more...https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/14/weirton-west-virginia-battery-plant-steel-mill