Three US lawmakers have proposed a bill that, if passed, would require the Environmental Protection Agency to report on the energy consumption and environmental impact of crypto mining.
On December 8, California Rep. Jared Huffman and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey explained that they were putting the spotlight on the energy use of crypto mining in the US, stating that Bitcoin miners accounted for approximately 1,4% of the total electricity consumption in the United States. These legislators have introduced, with the collaboration of Senator Jeff Merkley, a Cryptocurrency Mining Environmental Transparency Act, specifically aimed at ordering the EPA to report on cryptocurrency mining activity that is consuming more than 5 megawatts.
El California Representative He explained that it is essential to realistically understand the environmental impact that this industry represents, which is why his bill with Senator Markley "will require cryptocurrency mining facilities to report on their carbon dioxide emissions, as well as a particularly detailed interagency study on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies."
Lawmakers cited climate change as their main reason for moving quickly to regulate the crypto industry. Meanwhile, Scott Faber, the vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, has supported this legislation, stating that BTC and other tokens would “incentivize miners to use more electricity.”
In this way, although the Ethereum blockchain As cryptocurrencies shifted from PoW to PoS in 2022, with lower energy consumption, many legislators in the US continue to highlight the electricity consumption that cryptocurrencies entail. Last October, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts requested information from the head of the Texas Electric Reliability Council on the energy consumption and environmental impact of cryptocurrencies along with six other members of Congress.
