U.S. Steel requests two-year reprieve from some emissions controls
U.S. Steel Corp. is asking for a two-year presidential exemption from three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution emissions standards.
The request from the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker would be over the implementation of three separate provisions of Section 112 of the Clean Air Act that had been set under the Biden administration and are being reconsidered by the Trump administration. They are the Integrated Iron and Steel Maximum Allowable Control Technology (MACT) Rule, the Taconite MACT Rule and the Coke MACT rule, according to the company's quarterly financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A provision of the Clean Air Act allows the president to exempt for up to two years (and renewable) if there is not affordable or available technology to put the emissions controls in place or if the company can prove a national security issue. Each of the three requested exemptions have to be approved by President Donald J. Trump.
Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Politico
25 minutes ago
- Politico
Pharma's silver lining: A tax break
Presented by WASHINGTON WATCH Threats to drugmakers have come fast and furious during President Donald Trump's first five months in office, from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s broadsides about drug safety to Trump's call for lower prices and tariffs. But at least pharmaceutical companies can look forward to a big tax break. How so? That's if Republicans in Congress can coalesce around language in the megabill that would allow drugmakers and other companies that invest heavily in research and development to deduct R&D costs immediately. The Senate Finance Committee's version of the megabill — which aims to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts — would reverse language in the 2017 law and allow firms to permanently take a deduction in the first year they spend on R&D. The 2017 law required them to amortize domestic expenses over five years and foreign expenses over 15. Drugmakers have lobbied ever since to revert that change. The version of the megabill the House passed last month would also allow immediate expensing but only for five years. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a lobby for pharmaceutical companies, has long argued that the 2017 tax change has curtailed investment in drugs. What's next? The Senate has to pass its version of the bill and then the House and Senate must agree to the text. But the inclusion of immediate expensing in both versions bodes well for drugmakers. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Sweden and Belgium are lobbying other EU countries to limit the amount of sperm any one man can donate — to prevent future generations from unwitting incest and psychological harms, our colleagues across the pond report. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Danny Nguyen at dnguyen@ Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: Dannyn516.70, CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. AROUND THE NATION Dr. Mark Ghaly, who helped steer California through the pandemic as head of the state's Health and Human Services Agency, is joining a startup that's using artificial intelligence to cut health care costs for the Golden State's Medi-Cal program for low-income people, our Rachel Bluth reports from Sacramento. Why it matters: Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is looking for ways to reduce Medi-Cal's multibillion-dollar deficit. Ghaly will join Pair Team as a strategic adviser. Pair Team provides enhanced care management under CalAIM — a Medi-Cal reform initiative that Ghaly helped shape to include nonmedical benefits for patients with complex medical needs. Pair Team also acts as an intermediary, connecting health care plans with nonprofits and patients. The company employs community health care workers who serve as case managers and nurse practitioners, nurses and social workers who provide an array of services, including primary care, mental health care and chronic care management. The company is also a hub for nonprofits that provide nonmedical support such as food, housing and transportation. Since many of the groups aren't set up to bill Medi-Cal plans directly, they're paid through Pair Team. What's next? The company is eager to expand beyond California.


Axios
32 minutes ago
- Axios
Fed leaves rates steady, projects higher inflation
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged for the fourth straight meeting, as its leaders projected weaker growth and higher inflation this year than they envisioned three months ago. Even so, they continue to expect two rate cuts later this year. Why it matters: The central bank has resisted President Trump's calls for immediate rate cuts, as its leaders believe that a volatile policy environment will fuel both higher prices and a weaker job market in the near term. Driving the news: The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee left its interest rate target steady at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, where it has been since December. However, the median top official at the central bank continues to anticipate bringing the Fed policy rate down to 3.9% by year end, the same as in March, implying two rate cuts ahead. The consensus projection also implied only one rate cut in 2026, not the two suggested in March. "Uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished but remains elevated," the committee said, tweaking language from its previous statement that uncertainty had "increased further." The decision was unanimous. By the numbers: In new projections, the median Fed official anticipated 3% inflation this year, up from the 2.7% they penciled in in March. The median official saw the unemployment rate rising to 4.5% at year-end, up from 4.4% in March. The median GDP growth forecast was trimmed to 1.4%, from 1.7% in March. Between the lines: The March projections were made before President Trumps announcement of "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs, which sent markets in a tailspin and caused a wave of recession worries. Since then, the trade war has de-escalated and a wave of deals was promised, though uncertainty among businesses remains elevated and the risk of supply chain disruptions high. Fed officials are waiting on any policy shifts until it is clearer whether an upsurge in inflation, or worsening in labor market conditions, represents the bigger threat to their mandate of stable prices and maximum employment. What they're saying: "Look at wages, look at job creation — they're all at healthy levels," Fed chair Jerome Powell said during a news conference. "Now I would say you can see perhaps a very, very slow continued cooling, but nothing that's troubling at this time," he added. "As long as the economy is solid, as long as we're seeing the kind of labor market that we have and reasonably decent growth and inflation moving down, we feel like the right thing to do is to be where we are," Powell said, adding the Fed expects to learn more over the summer on tariffs. Yes, but: The Trump administration has seized on recent benign inflation readings to accuse the Fed and Powell of being asleep at the wheel and unduly reluctant to cut rates.


CNBC
34 minutes ago
- CNBC
The Fed's outlook for inflation and jobs shows the bind it's in — plus, Amazon's robotaxi move
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets and Fed: Stocks fluctuated between modest gains and losses Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates unchanged, in line with expectations. Investors were also chewing over the central bank's updated economic projections, which are released on a quarterly basis. The central bank now sees median core PCE inflation coming at 3.1% in 2025, up from the 2.8% rate previously forecasted in March. Modest upward revisions to inflation expectations were also seen for 2026 and 2027, though, of course, it's quite difficult to forecast that far into the future. The Fed committee also now sees median unemployment in 2025 coming in at 4.5%, up from the prior 4.4% forecast. Similarly to the inflation outlook, the Fed's 2026 and 2027 unemployment forecasts were revised up slightly. As a result, the Fed now sees real GDP — meaning adjusted for inflation — coming in below prior expectations. 2025 is now expected to see real GDP growth of 1.4%, down from 1.7%. Meanwhile, 2026 growth is expected to come in at 1.6%, down from 1.8%. However, the growth estimate for 2027 was left unchanged at 1.8%. These revisions underscore the bind that the Fed finds itself in during President Donald Trump's tariff war. The Fed's dual mandate is to ensure price stability and low unemployment. When faced with higher inflation, the Fed usually seeks to tame it using rate hikes. When faced with increasing unemployment, the Fed usually turns to rate cuts to stimulate the economy. There's tension now on both sides of that mandate. At his post-meeting press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the central bank is "well positioned to wait" before adjusting policy any further. On tariffs, specifically, Powell said: ""It takes some time for tariffs to work their way through the chain of distribution to the end consumer." "Because the economy is still solid, we can take the time to actually see what's going to happen," Powell said. "We'll make smarter and better decisions" if we wait a few months to get more data on tariffs, he said. Crude checkup: Oil prices were mostly flat Wednesday after Trump said Iran wants to negotiate following six days of Israeli airstrikes. "They want to negotiate," Trump told reporters Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after he had threatened Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "They even suggested that they come to the White House. That's courageous. It's like not easy for them to do." Stock investors have been closely following the way that oil is reacting to Israel-Iran headlines, given the potential for the conflict in the oil-rich region to disrupt supply and dent global economic growth. Israel's surprise attack on Iran's military nuclear infrastructure Friday led to the initial jump in oil prices. Friday's upswing was the biggest intraday move for the crude futures contract since 2022. Prices have seesawed in subsequent days, but remain trading near five month highs. Driverless news: Autonomous vehicles are back in the spotlight Wednesday. Club name Amazon is ramping up production of its Zoox robotaxis ahead of the launch of public rides in Las Vegas later this year, and Alphabet's Waymo announced that it is looking enter New York City, albeit with a human behind the wheel to start. The news is just the latest indication of how fast the adoption of robotics is playing out — after all, that's more or less what an autonomous vehicle is. For Amazon specifically, it speaks to the opportunity AI presents. We just heard from CEO Andy Jassy on this on Tuesday. In a note published on the company's website, Jassy wrote that in the coming years, "we expect that [artificial intelligence] will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." However, reading the tea leaves, we think it pretty clear that AI is going to impact far more than the corporate headquarters. Earlier this month, we learned that the company was looking into AI-powered humanoid robots to make deliveries. In total, analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that the overall Amazon is looking to automate roughly $200 billion in logistics costs, or about 35% of its online retail revenue. Between humanoid robots and self-driving cars, there is a massive opportunity at play for Amazon to not only open up new revenue streams via a robotaxi service, but also reduce it's massively existing cost structure, boosting profits in the process. Of all the major tech players in the AI race, Amazon may prove to be the greatest beneficiary. Of course, its profit-engine Amazon Web Services is benefiting from software developer demand for cloud resources as AWS offers up multiple large language models for them to leverage. But given its massive logistics network — something the other American tech giants don't really have —it likely has the biggest opportunity of all of them when it comes to margin expansion. Up next: The market will be closed on Thursday in observance of Juneteenth. On Friday, investors will return to a basket of corporate earnings. Accenture , Kroger and Darden Restaurants will all report quarterly results before the opening bell. Updates from supermarket giant Kroger and Olive Garden owner Darden, in particular, could offer fresh insights on the health of the U.S. consumer. On the economic data front, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.