A hulking steel plant in Middletown,Ā Ohio, is the cityā€™s economic heartbeat as well as a keystoneĀ origin storyĀ ofĀ JD Vance, the hometown senator now running to beĀ Donald Trumpā€™s vice-president.

Its future, however, may hinge uponĀ $500 million in funding from landmark climate legislation that Vance has called a ā€œscamā€ and is a Trump target for demolition.

In March,Ā Joe Bidenā€™s administrationĀ announcedĀ the USā€™s largest ever grant to produce greener steel, enabling theĀ Cleveland-CliffsĀ facility in Middletown to build one of the largest hydrogen fuel furnaces in the world, cutting emissions by a million tons a year by ditching the coal that accelerates theĀ climate crisisĀ and befouls the air for nearby locals.

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When campaigning for the Senate in 2022, Vance said Bidenā€™s sweeping climate bill is ā€œdumb, does nothing for the environment and will make us all poorer,ā€ and more recently as vice-presidential candidate called the IRA a ā€œgreen energy scam thatā€™s actually shipped a lot more manufacturing jobs to China.ā€


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  • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    ā€œMy focus is my constituents and doing whatā€™s best for themā€”how else will this empty floodplain produce $1 million for people in our town?ā€ Messer said. ā€œNothing is going do that but solar. Iā€™m happy to use the IRA, but if I had a national role my view might be different. I mean printing money and giving it away to people wonā€™t solve inflation, it will make it worse.ā€

    This is real proof that a basic economics class should be mandatory to hold political office. This guy is the mayor and he hasnā€™t a clue how inflation works. Yet heā€™s talking to the press like heā€™s some kind of authority.