State legislators are looking into the effects of cryptocurrency on the climate. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are appealing to some because it is decentralized and unregulated.
But “mining” for cryptocurrency, in which computers use complex processes to generate digital money, uses a lot of energy. Globally, the cryptocurrency uses more electricity than countries such as Argentina and Australia.
In Pennsylvania, some crypto-mining companies are taking advantage of incentives to burn waste coal and remove former mine lands.
What was left of coal mining was not considered sufficient to support electricity generation or steel making. The toxic residue was left in huge dumps near the original mining sites, so the state has designated power plants that use waste coal as beneficial to the environment. Under Pennsylvania’s alternative energy portfolio standards, electric utilities must purchase 10% of their power from a pool of sources that includes waste coal.
But environmental advocates say the practice leaches pollution into the air, and that using plants for crypto has increased harmful pollution.
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The purchase of the Panther Creek plant by a crypto-mining company could cause emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide to more than triple from 2021 to 2022, Charlie McPhedran, an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice, said in one case.
“The Commonwealth should not encourage practice that increases carbon dioxide emissions and climate impacts, even as we work hard to reduce them elsewhere,” McPhedran said.
Greg Beard, CEO of Stronghold Digital Mining, which now owns the Scrubgrass power plant in Venango County, said the plants are the best option for removing the waste coal.
“We’ve been made out to be renegade power producers, running very inefficient power plants and polluting more than regular thermal coal plants,” Beard said. “Our plants were designed with recovery as a priority, not power generation.”
The plants can serve as a back-up to the electric grid during periods of high demand, he added.
Environmentalists want Pennsylvania to get rid of incentives to burn coal and require crypto-mining companies to use less energy-intensive practices.
The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee recently held hearings with environmental lobbyists, crypto businesses, and New York legislators to look into the cryptocurrency mining industry in Pennsylvania. No legislation has been introduced on the subject.
The state of New York recently created a 2-year moratorium on crypto-mining while it looks into the issue.
This story was produced in partnership with StatImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration between The Allegheny Front, WPSU, WITF and WHYY to cover the Commonwealth’s energy economy.
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