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Genuinely not being snide, I really do not know.

Is it possible to produce steel on industrial scales without coal?

I know early ironmaking (I live fairly close to Coalbrookdale!) used charcoal, but is that possible at a large scale?

It’s complicated: https://news.mit.edu/2025/decarbonizing-steel-tough-as-steel...

This is one of the stronger arguments for a carbon tax: if you can’t ignore externalities, people have strong incentives to use less (e.g. buying a car instead of an SUV or biking) and all of the alternative fuel and process work is going to be easier if the cost comparison is more even.

Thanks for the link. I read about electric arc furnaces reprocessing scrap steel somewhere else recently. Do we really never need virgin steel again, we already have all we need?

> if you can’t ignore externalities, people have strong incentives to use less

Or vote for those who promise to cancel all of this.

Yes, that’s definitely a risk when there’s a huge industry pumping out agitprop saying we don’t need to act. I think the original proposal was wise to structure it as an income tax refund so people would see a regular positive benefit.

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