Setting Buy Clean Standards to Green US Steel

The policy brief examines the implementation of Buy Clean standards for the US steel industry, emphasizing the need to balance near-term emissions reductions with the long-term survival and decarbonization of primary steel producers. It proposes a sliding-scale emissions standard based on the ratio of primary to recycled scrap content in steel products to avoid unintended market shifts and emissions leakage.

• The US steel industry relies on both primary manufacturing (from ore) and secondary manufacturing (recycling). While Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF) dominate the US industry, primary steel production remains essential for meeting demand and achieving national climate goals through 2050.
• Poorly designed Buy Clean standards risk creating a 'reshuffling of emissions' rather than actual decarbonization. This could occur if buyers shift exclusively to EAF facilities or if Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) manufacturers simply increase scrap ratios without changing fundamental production practices, thereby depriving primary steelmakers of the revenue needed for decarbonization investments.
• The EPA should implement a dynamic emissions standard for steel products based on their recycled content. RMI proposes a sliding scale where the emissions intensity standard is calculated by combining the decarbonization trajectories of primary and secondary steelmaking based on the product's specific scrap-to-primary ratio.
• To support fair target-setting, the EPA must prioritize transparency in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Specifically, EPDs should include reported parameters for recycled scrap content and the sourcing of raw material inputs like pig iron.
• Near-term emissions targets should be based on product categories rather than manufacturing processes to maintain the comparability of EPDs and avoid bifurcating the industry.
• Deep decarbonization of primary steelmaking can be achieved by replacing Blast Furnaces (BF) with Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plants using 100 percent green hydrogen and powering EAFs with zero-carbon electricity.
• The US government is supporting industrial transition through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including $6 billion in Department of Energy grants for decarbonizing heavy industrial facilities, such as retrofitting or replacing blast furnaces.

APA

RMI (2023). Setting Buy Clean Standards to Green US Steel. https://rmi.org/resources/setting-buy-clean-standards-to-green-us-steel/

Chicago

RMI. Setting Buy Clean Standards to Green US Steel. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/setting-buy-clean-standards-to-green-us-steel/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Setting Buy Clean Standards to Green US Steel |date=27 April 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/setting-buy-clean-standards-to-green-us-steel/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023setting, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Setting Buy Clean Standards to Green US Steel}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/setting-buy-clean-standards-to-green-us-steel/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }