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Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

I'm Erin Delmore.

Today, we're exploring a steel town in America's Rust Belt.

Not just any town.

This is Middletown, Ohio, and it's where U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was born and raised.

I will never forget where I came from. Ladies and gentlemen, I came from Middletown, Ohio.

I am proud of it, and I will never forget where I came from.

But long before it was depicted in Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegie, it was best known as the home

of steel plant Middletown Works. That plant was recently slated for a big green upgrade that would have cut down on air pollution.

The nastiest smell. I mean, it'll get in your house, it burns your throat.

But not long after residents saw their most famous neighbor make his way to Washington,

that planned upgrade was put on hold.

Federal funds not only have been canceled that were once promised, but the reality that there

will probably be no more federal funds that will help transition to clean energy.

So if people in the town say they want clean energy and less pollution, why didn't they vote for it?

I think it depends on how we ask the question.

It's a story about big business.

If you ask the question, do you want to see more clean energy in your community and you are a right-leaning thinker, then you're going to say no.

Public health.

If you ask the question, do you believe that your children deserve to grow up

in communities without pollution, then the answer would be yes.

...