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UnaffiliatedOpinion t1_iu6o4fp wrote

It is the old saying: "If you owe the bank a thousand dollars, it's your problem. If you owe the bank millions of dollars, it's the bank's problem." If the government forces US Steel to shut down the plant (even temporarily), there will be major backlash against the public officials who made it happen. The advertisements will write themselves, all they need is some B-roll of a struggling working class family who "had honest work until the government took that away from them." The companies hold all the power in this relationship.

On the other hand, nobody is going to make a super PAC to allow you to drive an out-of-spec car.

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rhb4n8 OP t1_iu6qhiq wrote

I mean in a better world they would be forced to reinvest in the plant at threat of bankruptcy. It's lunacy that a 70 year old coke battery is allowed to run without regular reconditioning and meeting pollution controls. They should have to fully fund the pension and retire anyone who gets fucked over by their being cheap

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NathanLocke t1_iu9ysqx wrote

Coke plants are closing because scrap is now the preferred and more cost effective method.

A coke plant near us announced they were closing and it came as a shock, even to the employees. They had recently invested $300 million in the plant.

People lived all over Western Pennsylvania when the steel mills and chemical and coke plants were belching pollution and most of them lived to ripe old ages.

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