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Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and a group of six other US senators have asked for data on the energy use and potential environmental effects of Texas-based bitcoin mining facilities.
The senators wrote to Pablo Vegas, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), saying that the state’s “cheap power and laissez-faire regulation” are raising concerns about the possibility that mining operations “will add to the stress on the state’s power grid.” They called Texas a “deregulated safe harbor” for cryptocurrency mining companies.
The senators specifically asked for data on the amount of electricity crypto miners in Texas used and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions they produced during the previous five years.
Additionally, the senators are interested in learning how much Texas officials are subsidizing Bitcoin mining operations in order to reduce energy usage during moments of high demand.
But, the letter states that Bitcoin miners profit from electricity grid strain caused by their operations. They then receive subsidies in the form of demand response payments when they halt their mining operations and do nothing during periods of high demand.
The letter names Riot Blockchain, the owner of a 750 MW plant in Rockdale, as one of the businesses engaged in Bitcoin mining in Texas. Riot Blockchain said in July of this year that it had made around $9.5 million by shutting down operations and selling electricity back to the grid.
The senators pointed out that this was more than the $5.6 million the business made that month from selling Bitcoin.
According to the letter, Texas is also home to 25% of all Bitcoin mining operations in the United States and 9% of the world’s computer power used for cryptocurrency mining, “a share that is predicted to reach 20% by the end of next year.”
Elizabeth Warren, a strong opponent of cryptocurrencies, has previously led attacks on the sector, including Bitcoin mining operations.
The senator expressed worries about the environmental effects of the New York-based Bitcoin mining startup Greenidge Generation in July.
Before that, Warren tweeted that “cracking down on ecologically harmful cryptocurrency is one of the easiest and least disruptive things we can do to solve the Climate Crisis.”
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