Senator Warren is leading the Congressional Group’s investigation into Bitcoin mining energy use in Texas
A group of seven Democratic lawmakers in Washington, DC, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, is looking into the energy use and carbon emissions of the bitcoin mining industry in Texas, as well as the impact on the web and local consumers.
In a letter Wednesday addressed to Pablo Vegas, executive director of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the group expressed concern that bitcoin mining’s huge demand for energy in Texas is straining the state’s grid, negatively impacting consumers and US climate goals. ERCOT manages the power grid in Texas, which operates independently of the rest of the country.
“Cryptomining adds significant demand to an already unreliable network [and] contributes to the global climate crisis,” the lawmakers claim, who further claim that miners benefit at the expense of consumers from “large ERCOT subsidies in the form of demand response agreements.”
So-called demand response programs mean that when demand for energy across the grid is high, miners shut down operations in exchange for energy credits that they can use in the future, freeing up power back into the struggling grid. About 1 GW of mining was shut down this summer as heat waves swept the state.
The Democratic lawmakers see things differently: “In simple terms, 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 shuts down mining and does nothing.”
Bitcoin miners flocked to Texas after a ban on the industry last year in China, then the largest hub of crypto mining in the world, because of its apparent abundant energy and friendly regulation.
There is now about 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of crypto mining in Texas, with another 5 GW set to come online by the end of 2023, according to the local industry association and lobby group, the Texas Blockchain Council (TBC). ERCOT has said it has 33 GW worth of applications from desktop miners, but TBC said that includes some double-counting. In any case, ERCOT has slowed application approval as it tries to figure out in detail how miners can be integrated into the grid.
The letter was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), as well as Representatives Al Green (D-TX), Katie Porter (D-CA). ), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
It’s just the latest salvo from Senator Warren against Bitcoin and its miners over environmental and other concerns. Last year, she spoke out against Greenidge Generation, a natural gas-powered bitcoin miner in New York state, which ultimately saw its air permits denied in July.
Read more: The End of the Texas Bitcoin Mining Gold Rush
