Twenty-three U.S. lawmakers have referred to as on the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA) to extend oversight of cryptocurrency’s environmental impacts. “We request that the EPA consider ‘Proof-of-Work’ mining services’ compliance with environmental statutes,” they stated.
Lawmakers Need Extra Oversight of Bitcoin Mining Trade
U.S. Consultant Jared Huffman (D-CA) and 22 different Congress members collectively despatched a letter to Environmental Safety Company (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan concerning cryptocurrency mining operations Wednesday.
The congressman from California is the chair of the US Home Pure Assets Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife. He’s additionally a member of the Home Choose Committee on the Local weather Disaster.
The letter requires “elevated oversight of cryptocurrency’s environmental impacts,” Rep. Huffman’s workplace introduced Thursday. Of their letter, the lawmakers described:
We’ve critical issues concerning reviews that cryptocurrency services throughout the nation are polluting communities and are having an outsized contribution to greenhouse fuel emissions.
Amongst different claims, the lawmakers asserted that Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining contributes to “important greenhouse fuel emissions” and “leads to main digital waste challenges as a result of extremely specialised and short-lived computing {hardware} wanted to safe the community.” They confused, “The business must be held accountable for this waste and discouraged from creating it.”
The Congress members additionally identified that “Much less energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining applied sciences, corresponding to ‘Proof-of-Stake’ (PoS), can be found.”
Noting that communities round cryptocurrency mining services “have reported important noise air pollution,” the lawmakers emphasised that “It’s critically vital that the EPA makes use of these authorities to adequately shield communities throughout the united statesbeing disrupted by these cryptocurrency services.” They concluded:
We request that the EPA consider ‘Proof-of-Work’ mining services’ compliance with environmental statutes, such because the Clear Air Act and the Clear Water Act, and interact with the communities when reviewing permits.
“Additional, we ask that the EPA examine and tackle any hurt these current PoW services are inflicting communities,” the lawmakers added.
Lots of the claims concerning bitcoin’s environmental impacts have been debunked. Ark Make investments, for instance, has defined a number of occasions that bitcoin mining is internet optimistic for the setting, and issues concerning the cryptocurrency’s power consumption are misguided. Moreover, Galaxy Digital revealed a report in Could final yr displaying that the banking system makes use of significantly more energy than bitcoin.
In January Coinshares revealed a report displaying that bitcoin’s mining infrastructure accounts for 0.08% of the world’s carbon dioxide manufacturing right this moment. The corporate additional noted that “Utilization of power is a contentious and much-misunderstood perform of the Bitcoin financial system.”
Earlier this month, celeb investor Kevin O’Leary stated that “bitcoin mining goes to save the world.”
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