The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has redirected a $500-million grant originally awarded for a hydrogen-ready steelmaking project to a coal-fired blast furnace at a steel plant in Ohio, a move that reinforces the Trump administration's push to scale back funding for the country's renewables sector, local media reported on August 24.

The original 2024 award, made under the Biden administration, was intended to replace the coal-fired furnace at Cleveland-Cliffs' Middletown Works plant with a hydrogen-ready direct reduced iron operation and two electric melting furnaces. The project was expected to cut roughly one million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Cleveland-Cliffs abandoned that plan after President Donald Trump took office. CEO Lourenco Goncalves said the revised $1 billion project - with $500 million from the DOE and $500 million from the company - will refurbish the blast furnace, install advanced material handling and AI-enabled process controls, and build a cogeneration plant using blast furnace gas. The furnace rebuild is expected in the first quarter of 2030.

The rescoping comes amid a broader retreat from clean energy funding under the current administration. In 2025, the DOE terminated hundreds of awards worth more than $11 billion, affecting industrial decarbonisation, carbon capture, grid and hydrogen projects. Steel production accounts for roughly 9% of global carbon emissions, with most coming from coal-fired blast furnaces.