A group of US House Democrats demanded increased regulation of proof-of-work mining in a letter delivered to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday.
Legislators asked the government to look into the potential detrimental effects, nomting “concerns about claims that bitcoin facilities across the country are polluting neighbourhoods.”
Noise pollution, electronic waste from hardware replacement, greenhouse gas emissions, and the reactivation of defunct gas and coal plants to power mining operations are all mentioned in the letter. The letter is addressed to Michael Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Congressman Jared Huffman, the chair of the Natural Resources Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee and a member of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, spearheaded the campaign.
Over 20 members of Congress signed the letter, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Brad Sherman, the latter of whom has been an outspoken opponent of cryptocurrency and has previously called for an outright ban on cryptocurrency sales in the United States.
The letter cited President Biden’s recent executive order on cryptocurrency, which included the EPA among the federal agencies tasked with assessing the dangers and benefits of cryptocurrency.
The EPA was tasked with working with other agencies and producing a report that would look into the potential for cryptography to “hinder or advance efforts to combat climate change at home and abroad,” among other things. The EPA’s decision to deny miners Ameren and Greenidge extensions to continue operating coal ash ponds on their properties was also lauded in the letter.
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