NEW YORK, NY (05/02/2023) (readMedia)-- This morning, Yahoo News reported on the White House's efforts earlier this year to pass a 30% tax on the electricity used by cryptocurrency mining operations. Mandy DeRoche, a Deputy Managing Attorney in the Clean Energy Program at Earthjustice, issued the following statement in response:
"Proof of work crypto-mining has had an outsized effect on energy usage in the United States -- threatening the health and safety of our communities -- in the midst of a climate crisis. The total lack of regulation has had serious, negative environmental impacts in the states we litigate in, and the Biden Administration's proposal is a critical part of the conversation about how to curtail that damage. Earthjustice looks forward to working together with partners and the administration to arrive at the best and most effective solutions together."
In December 2022, Earthjustice and Sierra Club, in partnership with 18 organizations, submitted comments to the Department of Energy and Energy Information Administration about the negative climate and environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining. The organizations asked that the agencies collect more data about cryptocurrency's energy consumption. Read the comments here.
In September 2022, the White House sounded the alarm about cryptocurrency mining - the Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report about the industry's climate threats and the need for regulation. But cryptocurrency mining continues to grow rapidly across the country. Earthjustice and the Sierra Club released a Guidebook, finding that in one year from mid-2021 to mid-2022, Bitcoin mining in the U.S. alone consumed as much electricity as four states combined, emitting 27.4 million tons of CO2 - equivalent to the emissions of as much as 6 million cars annually. More highlights from the Guidebook:
Read the guidebook here.
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.
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 to for cooling. Globally, Bitcoin mining consumes more energy each year than entire countries. In the U.S. alone, Bitcoin mining produces an estimated 40 billion pounds of carbon emissions each year. Fossil-fueled mining facilities can also be major emitters of air pollutants.
About Earthjustice
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.