Uncle Tony said, “Take him up.” We lifted off the grass runway of Coatesville Airport. Above Coatesville PA the West End of the valley was covered by a black cloud from the coke oven furnaces. At 1st Avenue the City of Coatesville appeared. 2 FACED VANCE

Heating a home with coal makes the house smell terrible. Imagine a smell ten times worse. 

By the time my brother Joe began working at Lukens Steel Company the electric furnace made Coatesville a clean place to live. 

ALSO:

My brother & apparently everyone who worked a long time at Lukens has asbestos in his lungs. The pipes in the mill are covered in asbestos liners. Joe worked outside mostly inspecting Navy steel. Even outside the buildings there was enough asbestos on the ground to get into his lungs. 

Vance is the ultimate two faced politician:

"On other occasions,Vance has worked behind the scenes to stymie regulation that he publicly claims to support. After the rail disaster in East Palestine, Vance co-authored the Railway Safety Act, designed to quickly improve the poor rail conditions that contributed to the disaster in his home state. But three months later, The Lever exposed that Vance had since quietly amended his own legislation to delay the safety reforms at the request of rail and chemical industry lobbyists."

“Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance pressured regulators to abandon a proposed federal rule to protect steelworkers and their communities from factories’ carcinogenic emissions, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. The final rules were weakened after Ohio Sen. Vance and other lawmakers intervened.

In a November 2023 letter, Vance urged the Environmental Protection Agency to abandon new regulations designed to limit life-shortening toxins spewed from coke plants, which are part of the steel industry supply chain. These chemicals, like benzene, mercury, lead, and arsenic, harm workers and nearby communities by heightening the risk of cancers, inflammatory lung diseases, and other health conditions. 

“I strongly urge the EPA to abandon the proposed rule to prevent unnecessary harm to domestic coke production and U.S. steel production, which is a critical economic driver of American economic recovery,” wrote Vance in a letter added to the rule’s docket in early July. “If implemented, the proposed rule will reduce coke production in the U.S. at a time when domestic steel production is more important than ever.” 

MORE AT:

THE LEVER

NATIONAL POLITICS

JUL 31, 2024

J.D. Vance Fought Health Protections For Steelworkers And Their Communities

By Grey Moran