Still Some Hope For U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works

CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — Six months ago, an explosion at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works killed two people. It also heightened the stakes in the life of a western Pennsylvania mill town even as a new mayor tries to raise hopes. But many who live and work in Clairton are wondering if they can hope for a sustained departure from decades of disinvestment and persistent pollution. Blocked by one American president, approved by the next, Japan’s Nippon Steel bought the American industrial icon for $15 billion last June. It pledged $11 billion in upgrades to domestic steelmaking. Nippon said $2.4 billion of that might reinvigorate Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley, where a half century of deindustrialization has left long strands of scarred riverside steel towns.