A gaggle of 14 United States senators and Home representatives have signed a letter to the Environmental Safety Company extolling what they consider are the advantages of crypto mining.
In a Thursday letter, many U.S. lawmakers together with pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis and Consultant Tom Emmer addressed EPA administrator Michael Regan, requesting the federal government company analyze the potential affect of crypto mining in an effort to steadiness innovation with environmental considerations. The group of 14 senators and representatives claimed mining might have a “substantial stabilizing impact on power grids” and cited examples of mining operations using flared gas and renewable power sources.
“Digital belongings, and their associated mining actions, are important to the financial way forward for the US,” stated the letter. “Favoring one know-how over one other, together with proof-of-work versus proof-of-stake, can stifle innovation, erode future financial beneficial properties, and restrict affiliated efficiencies.”
BREAKING: 14 members of Congress ship letter to the EPA, informing them of the useful environmental and monetary impacts of #Bitcoin Proof-of-Work mining. pic.twitter.com/LCrZ1nhgd9
— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) June 16, 2022
Along with Lummis and Emmer, the lawmakers who signed the letter had been all members of the Republican Occasion, together with Senators Invoice Hagerty, Kevin Cramer, and Steve Daines. Home Representatives Patrick McHenry, Pete Periods, Invoice Posey, Invoice Huizenga, Andy Barr, Anthony Gonzales, Brian Steil, William Timmons, and Ralph Norman additionally authorised the message to EPA administrator Regan.
The Republicans’ request to Regan stood in distinction to an April letter to the EPA from a bipartisan group of twenty-two lawmakers. They raised “critical considerations” round crypto corporations working in the US, claiming that the businesses contributed to greenhouse gasoline emissions and weren’t working in accordance with both the Clear Air Act or the Clear Water Act.
“Cryptocurrency mining is poisoning our communities,” stated the April letter to Regan. “The quickly increasing cryptocurrency trade must be held accountable to make sure it operates in a sustainable and simply method to guard communities.”
Associated: Eager to work: Bitcoin switch to proof-of-stake remains unlikely
In Could, the Bitcoin Mining Council responded to the April letter with one among its personal, alleging lots of the lawmakers’ claims on mining had been inaccurate. Many environmental teams, together with Greenpeace and the Sierra Membership, later urged government agencies underneath the Biden administration to implement new approaches of their response to crypto mining.