The original letter was written by Subcommittee Chair on Natural Resources, Water, Oceans and Wildlife and House Select Committee member on the climate crisis, Jared Huffman, and co-signed by a number of anti-crypto politicians at the end of April.
On May 2, industry leaders and executives including MicroStrategy chief Michael Saylor, Block's Jack Dorsey, Fundstrat's Tom Lee, Castle Island Ventures' Nic Carter, and Fidelity Investments Senior Vice President Tom Jessop responded. with their letter to the EPA.
The letter, co-signed by 55 industry experts and executives, stated that Democratic Representative Huffman's request for the EPA to increase its oversight of crypto mining was "based on several misconceptions."
Misconceptions About Bitcoin Mining
The letter made eight points in total, with the crux of the argument being that the power generators are responsible for the pollution, not the miners' data centers.
“Emissions are created at the power generation source upstream of the data centers. Digital asset miners simply buy electricity off the grid, like Microsoft and other data center operators. "
Huffman and co said they have "serious concerns" regarding Bitcoin mining facilities (quotation BTC) across the country "polluting communities" and having a "disproportionate contribution to greenhouse gas emissions".
The answer explained the difference between a data center and a power generation facility, as there seemed to be some confusion on the part of politicians.
There have been other instances where lawmakers have expressed concern over mining facilities reopening previously abandoned coal or gas plants. This has been refuted with the argument that these two examples comprise less than 2% of the Bitcoin network. Business leaders explained that sustainable energy use is on the rise:
"In fact, most digital asset miners are migrating away from fossil fuel-based electricity generation and increasingly relying on renewable energy."
We need more education for politicians
Claims that crypto mining produces mountains of e-waste have also been refuted. The group said there is no evidence anywhere of huge dumps containing obsolete ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), the hardware used to mine cryptocurrencies.
“To be clear: the claim that Bitcoin miners produce huge amounts of e-waste is a purely academic fantasy.
The group concluded that public officials need more education before making wild allegations about the environmental impact of the industry.
"It is clear that education is needed to ensure that public officials understand that the digital asset mining sector does not contribute to the environmental issues raised in the letter."
