Energy agency announces $6B to slash emissions

Largest-ever U.S. investment to decarbonize domestic industry

By Isabella O’Malley and Jennifer McDermott

The Biden administration announced $6 billion in funding Monday for projects that will slash emissions from the industrial sector — the largestever U.S. investment to decarbonize domestic industry to fight climate change.

The industrial sector is responsible for roughly 25% of all the nation’s emissions, and has proven difficult to decarbonize due to its energy-intense, largescale operations.

Iron, steel, aluminum, food and beverage, concrete and cement facilities are some of those involved in this initiative. Recipients of the funding, which is coming from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, include 33 demonstration projects in more than 20 states.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a call with news media that the technologies being funded are “replicable,” “scalable,” and will “set a new gold standard for clean manufacturing in the United States and around the world.” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said this funding aims to eliminate 14 million metric tons of pollution each year, equivalent to taking about 3 million cars off the road.

Among the funded projects:

Century Aluminum Company plans to build the first new U.S. primary aluminum smelter in 45 years. The plant would double the size of the current U.S. primary aluminum industry while avoiding an estimated 75% of emissions from a traditional facility, with its energy-efficient design and use of clean energy, according to DOE.

Constellium in Ravenswood, West Virginia, is going to operate a first-of-its-kind zero-carbon aluminum casting plant and install low-emission furnaces that can use clean fuels such as hydrogen. The company produces aluminum for a range of products including cars and planes.

Kraft Heinz will install heat pumps, electric heaters and electric boilers to decarbonize food production at 10 facilities, including in Holland, Michigan.

Cleveland-Cliffs Steel Corporation in Middletown, Ohio, will retire one blast furnace, install two electric furnaces, and use hydrogen-based ironmaking technology. The project aims to eliminate 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year from the largest supplier of steel to the U.S. automotive industry.

Heidelberg Materials US, Inc. will build a system that captures and stores carbon underground at its plant in Mitchell, Indiana. The project aims to capture at least 95% of the carbon dioxide released by the cement plant, which will prevent 2 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.

“I think the United States can be a leader here,” said Mike Ireland, president and CEO of the Portland Cement Association, a non-profit that promotes cement and concrete. Ireland said the innovative cement and concrete technologies being scaled in the U.S. can be adopted by developing countries in the Global South to build highways and buildings in a more sustainable way.

By Haleluya Hadero and Anne D’innocenzio

NEW YORK — If content creators and corporate executives made TikTok videos about the platform’s possible U.S. demise, disco diva Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” could supply the soundtrack.

Sure, businesses that built strategies around TikTok and promote products there would prefer not to seek eyeballs on another app. Smaller firms and solo entrepreneurs are bound to feel more pain in the event of a breakup. But if the popular video-sharing service remains under Chinese ownership and Congress bans it, many companies would learn to get along.

A lot of “What ifs” still surround a bill the U.S. House passed last week that would mandate TikTok’s Beijingbased parent company, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the platform within six months or face a nationwide ban. It’s unclear when the Senate will take up the legislation or if it will approve a ban when it does.

Big brands that have relied on TikTok to reach younger consumers do not appear to be panicking as they wait to see what happens in Washington. But they also have started planning. Some are retooling promotional campaigns that were originally intended just for TikTok. Many are testing alternatives and prioritizing work with influencers who have sizable followings on multiple social media platforms.

“I’m not the kind of marketer who wants to put all their eggs in one basket anyway,” said Jeremy Lowenstein, chief marketing officer for the makeup brand Milani Cosmetics. “We can always pivot. And like any technology, there will always be something new to try.”

To be sure, brands like LosAngeles-based Milani will lose a valuable tool if TikTok isn’t welcome in the U.S. anymore. Last year, sales of a new Milani mascara spiked after an influencer couple known as The Lipstick Lesbians posted a TikTok video about it, Lowenstein said. He’s already looked at alternative apps like Flip, a little-known shopping platform that allows users to earn money by reviewing beauty items and then buying them from featured brands.

Another cosmetics company, Oakland, California-based e.l.f. Beauty, created a viral sensation with a 2019 TikTok campaign that used an original song to explain the company’s name stood for “eyes. lips. face.” E.l.f. also was one of the first beauty brands to join TikTok Shop, the platform’s e-commerce arm, during the U.S. beta testing.

E.l.f ’s chief marketing officer, Kory Marchisotto, said the in-app shop, which allows viewers to buy products from seller accounts and videos, is doing well. But she noted that Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and other venues also offer short real-time videos, unlike when TikTok stood alone.

“We’ll take that incredible muscle that we built and develop and go with it wherever our community wants to go next, and they have always been the signal that has carried us,” Marchisotto said.

Some marketing agencies are telling brands to take basic precautions in case Congress ends up sending TikTok out the door. Billion Dollar Boy, a New York-based influencer marketing agency, has encouraged clients to spread their influencer spending across platforms, Edward East, the agency’s founder and group CEO said.

Well-established TikTok influencers, including beauty and fashion gurus, continue posting regularly on the app. But they’re also posting exclusive content on Instagram or YouTube or devoting more attention to their other social media accounts, said Nicla Bartoli, the vice president of sales at The Influencer Marketing Factory, an agency that works to pair content creators and brands.

Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at research firm eMarketer, thinks a TikTok ban would have a bigger effect on businesses today than a few years ago. Even though Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts provide competition, they haven’t cracked the magic formula of a TikTok video in driving sales, Enberg said.

“Even though you can replicate the technology, you can’t really replicate the culture, and people aren’t behaving necessarily in the same way as they are on TikTok,” she said.

TikTok does not receive the same level of ad revenue as Instagram and Facebook, according to data from eMarketer, but the firm predicts that it will surpass the other two this year in terms of the percentage of users that will make at least one purchase that originates on the platform.

“I think the impact will be felt across the board” if TikTok goes away, Enberg said “But it will be much more dramatic for small and medium businesses, as well as creator-founded businesses.”