Proclamation

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

1. Steel plays a vital role in the United States economy and daily life, underpinning infrastructure, manufacturing, and various other industries. It is a fundamental material for construction, transportation, energy systems, military hardware, and countless other products, contributing significantly to the Nation’s economic output and job creation. Currently, approximately 70 percent of all steel is made using metallurgical coke, a high-quality fuel and reductant used in blast furnaces to reduce iron ore to pig iron. A strong coke industry is therefore vital to building and maintaining critical infrastructure and military readiness.

2. On July 5, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency published a final rule, pursuant to section 112 of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7412, titled National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coke Ovens: Pushing, Quenching, and Battery Stacks, and Coke Oven Batteries; Residual Risk and Technology Review, and Periodic Technology Review, 89 FR 55684 (Coke Oven Rule). The Coke Oven Rule imposes new emissions-control requirements on coke oven facilities.

3. The Coke Oven Rule places severe burdens on the coke production industry and, through its indirect effects, on the viability of our Nation’s critical infrastructure, defense, and national security. Specifically, the Coke Oven Rule requires compliance with standards premised on the application of emissions-control technologies that do not yet exist in a commercially demonstrated or cost-effective form. Many of the testing and monitoring requirements outlined in the Coke Oven Rule rely on technologies that are not practically available, not demonstrated at the necessary scale, or cannot be implemented safely or consistently under real-world conditions. Due to the Coke Oven Rule’s onerous implementation and compliance schedule for these standards, many coke production facilities are in the impossible position of designing and engineering novel systems with unproven technology within a short time frame. The current compliance timeline of the Coke Oven Rule as set forth at 89 FR 55690 therefore raises the unacceptable risk of threatening facility closures, production halts, and lasting harm to the domestic coke production industry. This in turn would undermine our national security, as these effects would substantially impact local and national economies and would undermine the coke and steel sectors’ vital role in producing the iron and steel needed to support critical infrastructure and defense.