Senator Elizabeth Warren Takes on Bitcoin Mining in Texas: Here’s What She Proposes – Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and six other members of the US Congress called on Texas leaders to disclose the energy use and environmental impact of Bitcoin mining in the state.
What happened: Warren (D-MA) sent another letter Electric Reliability Council of Texas and its CEO Pablo Vegas.
In the letter, Warren accused Texas of being a “deregulated safe haven” for crypto mining companies. The letter said Texas offered “cheap power” and relaxed regulation that could cause stress on the state’s energy, as reported by Decrypt.
Warren asked for information including how much electricity Bitcoin BTC/USD miners in Texas consume and how much carbon dioxide emissions they have been responsible for over the past five years.
“Simplified, the Bitcoin miners make money from mining operations that produce heavy loads on the electrical grid, and during demand peaks when the profitability of continuing to mine decreases, they collect subsidies in the form of demand response payments when they shut down their mining operations and do nothing” , the letter said.
The letter asked for information on how much the mining companies were paid in subsidies.
One specific company named in the letter was Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT, which has a facility in Rockdale, Texas. Riot Blockchain said in July that it made $9.5 million by shutting down operations and selling electricity back to the grid.
The letter asked for full transparency and participation from parties with a response date of 31 October 2022.
Six other members of Congress signed the letter to Vegas, including:
Rep. Al Green (D-TX)
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA)
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA)
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
Related Link: How Bitcoin Miners Help Texas Cope With Heat Wave
Why it’s important: The letter from Warren and the other members of Congress said that Texas accounted for about 25% of US-based Bitcoin mining. The state’s crypto-friendly regulations have led many crypto mining companies to set up shop in Texas.
The letter from the congressmen may try to get ahead of potential problems with an already delicate power grid that has crashed during severe weather problems in the state.
Warren and the members of Congress highlighted that the energy used by Bitcoin and Ethereum ETH/USD miners in 2021 were responsible for 80 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Three cryptomining companies that provided data to Congress were responsible for 1.6 million tons, or the equivalent of 360,000 cars, the report said.
“Cryptomining adds significant demand to an already unreliable grid, and poses enormous challenges to the transmission and distribution system,” the letter said.
Warren previously attacked Bitcoin miners in July 20221 with a target of Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc GREEN.
“Bitcoin requires so much computing activity that it eats up more energy than the entire country. One of the simplest and least disruptive things we can do to combat the #climate crisis is to crack down on environmentally wasteful cryptocurrencies,” says Warren. tweeted.
BTC Price Action: Bitcoin was down 1.08% in 24-hour trading at $18,919.95 on Thursday at press time.
Photo: Maxim Studio via Shutterstock
