Steel Mills

Nucor to File Lawsuit Against Big River Steel

May 8, 2014

John Correnti let loose strong criticism of the latest attempt by Nucor Steel to delay the Big River Steel project.

Nucor attorney David Taggart told Osceola City council members on Tuesday that the company intends to file a lawsuit in federal court against Big River Steel under the Clean Air Act, according to a report by the Blytheville Courier News.

“How can you file under the Clean Air Act over a project that hasn’t even been built yet,” said Correnti in comments reported by the Courier. “They’re just trying to scare away investors and participants in the project. Everybody knows this is going nowhere. They’re filing suit against an idea. I’m not really concerned about it. It won’t delay us. We have a solid permit. It’s been issued and reinstated three times. Actually, my investors are getting more excited about this because all their [Nucor’s] work confirms the validity of this project. What’s Nucor worried about? Their study said Big River would never be successful, and now they’re trying to kill it.”

Correnti called the lawsuit “an abuse of the legal system” that will cost Nucor between $8 and $10 million.

Correnti was confident that the legal action will not impact Big River and that ground breaking will commence at the end of June or first of July following German government approval of a loan.

Keith Prevost of Nucor-Yamato Steel defended the legal action in the following statement:

“Nucor Steel Arkansas and Nucor-Yamato Steel continue to believe that the air permit issued to Big River Steel LLC does not meet the requirements of applicable state and federal law, and that permitting for the Big River facility will be detrimental to the existing steelmaking operations in Mississippi County,” Prevost said. “Given these circumstances, we intend to make our case in both federal court and through the state appellate court process, and we look forward to a final disposition of this matter.”