Cynthia Lummis: BTC Can Make the Planet Clean Again

Cynthia Lummis – the republican senator of Wyoming – has proven herself to be a major bitcoin bull. During the recent Miami Bitcoin Conference, Lummis made an appearance and commented that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies could help clean up the environment.

Cynthia Lummis on the Power of Crypto

She explained:

One of the advantages of bitcoin mining is that when you drill an oil and gas well, and it is distant from other oil and gas wells, you vent the gas into the atmosphere until you can bring in a pipeline to hook it up. Well, while that’s being vented, you can pull a bitcoin mining operation in a trailer, use the vented methane gas to mine your bitcoin, and you are preventing that gas from being vented into the atmosphere. Bitcoin is cleaning up the environment.

The news is interesting given that for the past several years, many environmentalists have stepped in to say that bitcoin and crypto are doing incredible harm to the environment – the exact opposite of what Lummis is stating. There have been many reports, for example, for some time, that bitcoin and crypto mining uses more energy than most developing nations such as Iceland.

Also, in April of 2023, reports from the Environmental Working Group linked bitcoin and crypto mining to higher air, noise, and water pollution. Many industry heads – from Kevin O’Leary to Elon Musk – have also expressed concerns about how the mining industry has affected Earth’s atmosphere and resources.

Continuing her speech, Lummis further stated that bitcoin is also a national security issue. She said:

I’m actually worried as we go into another debt ceiling debate that we will eventually increase the debt ceiling to the point where our interest payments will exceed how much money we spend on national defense, so it is a national security issue.

She also criticized other lawmakers in Washington for not doing enough to know more about the crypto industry. She said that many of her constituents in Congress do not recognize the differences between bitcoin and its many altcoin cousins, a scary fact in her opinion. She commented:

Even though you all know that when FTX failed, they held zero bitcoin, there are a lot of people in Washington D.C. that conflate companies with digital assets. They conflate bitcoin with other cryptocurrencies.

A Major Bull

Since she first entered Congress in January of 2021, Lummis has shown herself to be a major bitcoin and crypto advocate, as she was very clear that she had invested in bitcoin multiple times prior.

She also introduced a crypto bill in mid-2022 that would allegedly carve out rules and structures for all future crypto legislation. The move was alleged proof that crypto innovation in America was an important talking point for Lummis and her staff.