Commentary BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania—Exactly two years ago, U.S. Steel Corporation announced that the company would turn its Mon Valley Works operations into a key source of lightweight steel for the automotive industry. At the time, local leaders and company officials called the investment “transformational.” It involved a whopping $1.5 billion upgrade to the three Mon Valley Works plants, all in Pennsylvania—the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, and the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton—with technology and improvements that would have resulted in cleaner air for all three communities as well as good-paying jobs providing regional prosperity for decades. On April 30, U.S. Steel said that after months of tug of war with the Allegheny County Health Department, it was canceling the $1.5 billion upgrade and idling three batteries at Clairton Coke Works by 2023. U.S. Steel said in a statement that a dragged-out delay from Allegheny …