Christopher Briem’s “Other Voices” column (June 6, “Clairton Is Dead, Long Live Clairton”) is yet another example of how so many in higher education view and treat the people and communities that historically have been, and to at least some degree remain, industrial.

Clearly, the Mon Valley has and must continue to diversify its economy and mindset. But, it is pure nonsense for Mr. Briem and others to proclaim that “efforts to keep open the Clairton Works, along with its co-dependent Edgar Thomson and Irvin Works, is the last battle of an economic war long lost.”

I live within a 15-minute drive of all three plants. Like most of my friends and neighbors, I very much hope that U.S. Steel will follow through with its previously announced but now-canceled plans to make major investments in additional emission-reduction technologies.

I believe strongly, though, that those investments will much more likely happen if our local and state government officials, and our higher academic institutions, publicly and aggressively support ongoing — and increasingly cleaner — industrial production.

Vaughn Gilbert
McKeesport

First Published: July 1, 2021, 4:00 a.m.