Carbon County Residents and Enviro Orgs Urge DEP to Deny Panther Creek's Request to Burn Tires for Crypto

NESQUEHONING, PA (12/14/2023) (readMedia)-- Today, local residents of Carbon County joined the Clean Air Council and PennFuture for a virtual press conference urging the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to fully reject crypto-mining power plant Panther Creek's request to burn tires for their operations. The Panther Creek power plant, a waste coal-fired power plant home to thousands of bitcoin mining machines, submitted a permit proposal this past summer to the DEP requesting permission to burn so-called "tire derived fuel" (TDF), which environmental organizations and nearby residents previously raised concerns over due to the risk to human and environmental health. The DEP proposed approval this fall, but is holding a public meeting to hear from the community on Monday, December 18. Ahead of the DEP's final decision on the permit request, nearby residents that make up Save Carbon County are calling on the DEP to put the community before profits, and reject Panther Creek's request to further pollute the surrounding community.

A recording of the virtual press conference can be found here.

In 2021, Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. acquired Panther Creek to generate cryptocurrency by burning waste coal. They are now requesting to incinerate 15% of its fuel from shredded tires, which would only increase the tremendous air pollution generated at the site from burning waste coal. Tire Derived Fuel (TDF) is composed of shredded tires, and is often burned alongside conventional fuels like coal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that burning tires creates significant emissions of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) which are known to contain at least seven carcinogens. DEP has also recognized at least seven carcinogens present in PAHs. Despite this danger, Panther Creek does not currently even monitor carcinogenic PAHs.

"Our organization, Save Carbon County, is focused on preserving the unique environment of Carbon County. The coal regions of our county seem to be attractive as a location for industries that pollute and would not be accepted in wealthier communities. The cumulative impact of these degrading uses is a real impediment to economic recovery in the region and to the quality of life for residents," said Linda Christman, resident of Carbon County and the President of Save Carbon County.

"Since Panther Creek started generating cryptocurrency it has not justified that it contributes more than one-third of its potential electric output capacity to a public utility for sale," said Russell Zerbo, an advocate with the non-profit Clean Air Council. "Panther Creek must explain how much of its power is for public use. Impacted residents do not deserve to be exposed to the increased carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution that is caused by burning tires."

Background

In its recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global warming will reach dangerous levels if we don't drastically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels much faster than we are. But after China banned proof-of-work cryptomining (the process Bitcoin uses), citing, among other things, the environmental threats that mining poses to meeting emissions reduction goals, the U.S. is now hosting many energy-intensive proof-of-work cryptomining operations. While these facilities of automated machines create few new jobs, they threaten the climate, in addition to small businesses, local economies, and natural resources. See, for example, Earthjustce and Sierra Club's guidebook on this topic here and Earthjustice Pennsylvania Fact Sheet here: https://earthjustice.org/feature/cryptocurrency-mining-pennsylvania

Proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining is an energy-intensive process that requires thousands of machines whirring 24/7 to solve complex equations. The more machines that are running, the faster a coin is mined. Each one of these machines requires energy to run, plus more energy for cooling. Globally, Bitcoin mining consumes more energy each year than entire countries. In 2002, in the U.S. alone, Bitcoin mining produced an estimated 40 billion pounds of carbon emissions. Fossil-fueled cryptomining facilities can also be major emitters of local air and water pollution, significant noise pollution for local communities, and large amounts of electronic waste.