Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works is pictured in December 2023. Holly Mead/Special to the Butler Eagle

The fight continues to shore up America’s electric grid and still save 1,500 jobs at Cleveland-Cliffs.

While Jamie Sychak, president of the UAW Local 3303, works to persuade legislators on the importance of grain-oriented steel cores produced in America, eight lawmakers in Congress recently introduced bipartisan legislation to bolster the U.S. transformer supply chain by setting “realistic” energy efficiency standards that would keep domestic transformer manufacturing steady.

A proposal finalizing those energy standards could be released in May and, if adopted, would come into effect in 2027, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The energy-efficiency standards proposed by the department favor the use amorphous metal steel cores in electric transformers, which it says are more efficient than grain-oriented steel cores.

This month, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and co-sponsors Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-17th, Dan Meuser, R-9th, Susan Wild, D-7th, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1st, Guy Reschenthaler, R-14th, and Lloyd Smucker, R-11th, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, presented the Distribution Transformer Efficiency & Supply Chain Reliability Act of 2024. The bill is designed to stabilize domestic transformer manufacturing to meet increasing demand without disrupting existing supply chains or undermining American steel production.

“Cleveland-Cliffs’ continued production of and investment in Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES) requires common sense policies that promote energy efficiency and maximize utilization of domestically produced GOES,” said Laurenco Goncalves, chairman, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, in a recent news release. “This legislation will ensure the continued use of highly efficient GOES in distribution transformers that support the electric grid and ensure U.S. energy security, thus preserving good-paying, union jobs in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.”

Sychak was in Washington, D.C., in December to speak with legislators about a proposed mandate that would end the production of grain-oriented steel cores.

“I had the opportunity to sit in the energy and resources committee room in the Senate where I watched these conversations taking place,” Sychak said. “Everybody we talked with … nobody wants to see this rule cost American jobs.”

Sychak said energy efficient transformers are crucial components of the nation’s infrastructure.

“Equally important is our ability to manufacture them domestically from U.S. sourced electrical steel,” he recently said in a news release.

Debra Phillips, president and CEO, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, agrees.

“A strong supply of distribution transformers is critical to ensuring a reliable grid that delivers electricity to all Americans,” she said.

Jim Matheson, CEO of National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said the February bill offers updated standards that offer a more realistic time frame to energy efficiency and allow for a continued supply of needed grain-oriented steel for transformers.

“This legislation is a bipartisan antidote to Department of Energy’s unworkable proposal to rapidly tighten transformer efficiency standards, which would exacerbate the already long lead times electric cooperatives face to obtain distribution transformers,” Matheson said.

Sychak said, in addition to reaching out to legislators, he is alerting people in the region as to how the new standards would affect them, and the local economy of Western Pennsylvania.

“Our jobs will be the first thing that anybody sees as the initial impact of this rule,” Sychak said. “This is important to everybody in America, this has to be recognized.”

According to Sychak, the Department of Energy began talks to update the standards in January 2023. After being alerted to the situation by Sychak last year, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce began mailing forms regarding grain-oriented steel cores to the Department of Energy from local people and businesses every Monday.

“You're talking about a huge economic loss for the local economy here,” said Jordan Grady, president of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce. “Whatever can be done to stop this has to be done.”

Sychak said, in addition to Kelly, he has spoken with U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman. In December, Kelly and Deluzio sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm opposing a proposed energy conservation mandate related to distribution transformers.

Sychak said other pending legislation has himself and other manufacturers optimistic about the DOE’s mandate being shot down before anything can take effect.

“We're cautiously optimistic that these bills take this authority or responsibility away from the Department of Energy for 10 years,” Sychak said.