Local Congressman calling on DOE to repeal proposed rule threatening Butler County plant

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. — With more than 1,200 jobs on the line, Congressman Mike Kelly is calling on the Department of Energy to repeal a proposed rule that threatens the future of the Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works plant in Butler County.

“We’re not sitting back and ever losing this steel, this town, this country,” said the Butler County Republican.

At an emotional town hall Monday night at Butler County Community College, Kelly met with Cleveland-Cliffs representatives and the company’s union workers.

“We have the last makers of grain-oriented electric steel in America. We cannot give up any more products that are homemade,” Kelly said.

The Butler Works plant’s future is in jeopardy because of a Department of Energy-proposed rule which would require all electrical transformer cores be made with amorphous metal ribbon instead of the grain-oriented electric steel produced by Cleveland-Cliffs.

According to General Manager Aaron Steinheiser, the alternative is not as efficient as some people believe.

“Once you load that transformer beyond 50%, which almost all transformers are going to be beyond that, it falls way off. It’s an inferior product to what our steel is,” Steinheiser explained.

Steinheiser says a switch to amorphous material would essentially make his plant obsolete.

That’s why he and his employees are pushing so hard for the rule to be rolled back before it takes effect in 2027.

“It’s pins and needles, we never know. A lot of it is secretive,” said Jamie Sychak, the President of UAW Local 3303.

Last week, Governor Josh Shapiro announced the jobs at Butler Works were saved, but the company nor the labor union have received official word from the DOE.

Congressman Kelly is now pushing for a clear-cut answer.

“I hear people promising things all the time. I’ll tell you what, when the ink’s fry on the paper, then I’ll believe we’re going to be safe. I’m hearing good things, but I’ve heard good things in the past and they’ve evaporated,” Kelly said.

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