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Wall Street Journal

Our Aluminium Is a Boon to American Workers

Mark Duffy writes that 'Canada's Aluminum Subsidies Hurt the U.S.' (Letters, July 28). But let's review the numbers. Each year, Canada exports 2.7 million tons of aluminium to the U.S., a process that consumes 40 million megawatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to the output of at least four Hoover Dams. With the U.S.'s deregulated energy market, producing the same volume domestically would be prohibitively expensive—especially today, as data centers compete for the same power supply. That only four of the original 23 U.S. aluminium smelters remain has little to do with Canada and everything to do with the effects of energy deregulation in the 1980s. Canada remains the U.S.'s most secure and reliable source of aluminium because our industry reinvests hundreds of millions annually into world-class operations powered by low-cost hydroelectricity, a strategic advantage that U.S. industrialists have recognized for decades.