Anyone who’s not familiar with the long struggle by Pacific Steel Castings to keep its Berkeley, CA, neighbors happy, and to stay in business, will at least know the theme of the story: there’s no pleasing those people. Environmental activists are driven by an absolute faith in the superiority of nature over society, so economic considerations are of no concern to them.

Pacific Steel Castings is one of the country’s largest steel foundries. It produces carbon, low-alloy and stainless steel castings weighing up to 7,000 lb. for commercial vehicles and water valves, among other customers. For the past several years the foundry has worked with the state’s environmental agency (the Bay Area Air Quality Management District), the city government, and community activists to address residents’ complaints about odors and emissions.

Today, the San Francisco Chronicle carries a report about a protest staged to make it clear to the foundry it should, as the paper summarized, “clean up or close down.” However, one of the protesters gave away the game with this view: “If Berkeley is supposed to be such a green city, why do we have a steel mill? … They don't belong here. Berkeley can do better than this."

Well, OK. At least we know we were right in our assessment. But how, I’d ask, is Berkeley going to “do better” without the tax revenues (income, payroll, sales) that are the result of Pacific Steel Castings doing business in their city? Will a few more shops and restaurants make up the loss? Maybe some of the 5 million green jobs that were part of some earlier agenda to stimulate economic growth, will materialize there. My hunch is that Berkeley's activists wouldn’t be satisfied with any of those activities either.

Presumably, with strong demand over the past decade or so Pacific Steel Castings has found it feasible to fend off this endless assault on their right to conduct business responsibly. Now, domestic and global demand has tanked, and no one can say when financial conditions will revive.

But, when business does rebound, there will be renewed demand for steel castings. What’s in doubt is whether there will be any interest by steel foundries to battle these communities that don’t seem to want them in the first place.