House Democrats have called on the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the environmental effects of crypto mining, but a group of Bitcoin industry leaders has denied their accusations. Bitcoin Industry Challenges House Democrats Some of Bitcoin’s most ardent supporters have banded together to defend Proof-of-Work mining. Bitcoin industry executives responded to a request from House Democrats questioning the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining in a letter sent to EPA Chair Michael S. Regan on Monday. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) and 22 other members of Congress have asked the EPA to ensure that cryptocurrency mining operations do not violate key environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. In response, 55 Bitcoin industry heavyweights, including Block CEO Jack Dorsey, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz, worked together to rebut the House Democrats’ assertion that bitcoin mining had a negative impact on the environment. The rebuttal refutes key allegations stated in Huffman’s letter to the EPA, which was sent on April 20. The initial letter confounded Bitcoin mining data centres with power generation facilities, which was a major source of worry. “Power plants aren’t data centres,” says the author. The reply argued that “datacenters containing’miners’ are no different than datacenters owned and managed by Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Micros...
