Cliffs applauds President Trump for withdrawing from the Paris climate accord

CLEVELAND, OH. — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) today issued the following statement regarding President Trump’s decision for the withdrawal of the United States’ participation in the Paris climate accord.

Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Cliffs applauds President Trump for his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. The Paris climate accord is a bad deal for America in its current form. We must understand that staying in the accord is not equivalent to protecting the environment. As a nation, we could no longer accept the restrictions imposed on the United States while other countries are allowed to continue to pollute the world.”

Mr. Goncalves added, “The American iron and steel industry is the most environmentally compliant among the major industrial nations. We exclusively use iron ore pellets in our blast furnaces, while China relies on highly polluting sinter feed iron ore fines from Australia and Brazil to over produce steel, flood the steel markets and weaken the U.S. steel industry. We believe that being pro-environment, pro-industry and pro-business are not contradictory goals.”