00:00Did you know that California is getting its very first steel mill in over 50
00:04years, and that it's getting built right here in our very backyard?
00:11Out on the very edge of the Antelope Valley in between Rosamond and Mojave, a
00:16massive project is taking shape on a 174 acre site. It's called the Mojave
00:21Micromill, built by the Pacific Steel Group, and it's the first new steel mill
00:25built in California in more than half a century. And we needed it. California's
00:31last rebar mill shut down in 2019, meaning the state had to import nearly all of
00:36its structural steel from out of state or overseas. So this roughly $600 million
00:40plant is filling a real gap. After 50 years, California is making its own steel
00:45again, right here in the high desert. So here's what makes this place special.
00:51It's built to be one of the greenest mills in the entire world. Instead of a
00:55coal-fired blast furnace, it uses an electric arc furnace to melt recycled
00:59scrap metal into new rebar, powered largely by an on-site solar farm, which
01:03means that no natural gas is required for melting. That cuts around 370,000 tons
01:09of greenhouse gases a year, almost like taking 75,000 cars off the road all at
01:13once. To run a steel mill on Sunshine, they're installing North America's largest
01:18vanadium flow battery, a 32 megawatt hour system that stores solar power for when
01:22the sun's down. And unlike regular batteries, it won't wear out over decades
01:26of heavy use. There's a carbon capture system that traps up to 90% of remaining
01:31emissions, and a zero discharge water system that recycles all of its water
01:35internally, so it puts no strain on desert aquifers. The equipment's coming down
01:40from Daniele, a top Italian steel tech company. It's genuinely cutting edge. So what
01:45does this mean for those of us who live in the AV? Well, it means jobs. Up to 1,200
01:50construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions in Kern County. It
01:54keeps California's steel recycling loop in-state, and it makes the seismic-grade
01:58rebar that holds apart roads, bridges, and buildings. But let's be honest about
02:02the trade-off. The county's own report calls the impacts significant and
02:05unavoidable. Building this means converting 174 acres of untouched desert into
02:10heavy industry. The project got a permit to remove or relocate up to 204 protected
02:15Joshua trees, and it'll bring more truck traffic, dust, and round-the-clock
02:18activity to the area. On the other side, the company is legally required to pay
02:23mitigation fees and fund permanent Joshua tree habitat protection elsewhere in
02:27the Mojave, conduct biologist surveys to relocate desert tortoises and burrowing
02:31owls, set up buffer zones for nesting birds like the threatened Swainson's hawk, and
02:35keep third-party monitors on site who can actually haul construction if wildlife
02:38wanders in.
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