For a power-utility executive, energy is the product. For a manufacturer it is an input: a line in the cost of goods sold, a constraint on where a plant can be built, and since the 2010s a source of emissions that customers, regulators and lenders want reported and cut. The input became a strategic variable for three reasons:
What the study covers
- 1Overview: energy and emissions in the production equation
- 2Where energy sits in the cost stack
- 3The US–Europe energy gap, 2022–26
- 4Emissions of heavy industry
- 5Process heat and electrification
- 6Hydrogen steel and its setbacks
- 7EU ETS and CBAM: the importer's side
- 8PFAS and toxic-tort exposure
- 9EPA rules and the 2025–26 changes
- 10Scope 3: how emissions rules reach suppliers
- 11How to read energy and environmental claims
- 12Key numbers
- 13Landmark companies and cases
- 14Pitfalls
- 15How an expert thinks about it
- 16Glossary
Companies in this study
- Nucor
- U.S. Steel
- Cleveland-Cliffs
- Alcoa
- Dow
- 3M
- Chemours
- DuPont
- Cummins
- Paccar
- BASF
- ArcelorMittal
- Thyssenkrupp
- Covestro
- Volkswagen Group
- China Baowu Steel
- POSCO. For hydrogen as a fuel business see Energy 10 Hydrogen; for the EU ETS, CBAM and carbon capture see Energy 16 Carbon Markets; for IRA credits and the 2025 law see Energy 18 Policy and Regulation; for the 2022 and 2026 gas shocks see Energy 19 Geopolitics; for data centres competing for power see Energy 12 Data Centre Power Demand; for efficiency and on-site generation see Energy 14 Distributed Energy and Efficiency; for industrial gases see Energy: Air Products; for Scope 3 and sustainability in logistics see Supply chain 21 Labour, Safety and Sustainability.