Will Bitcoin Mining Face Harsh Restrictions in Texas?

• The Texas Senate Committee passes a restrictive Bitcoin mining bill with no opposition.  
• Bitcoin miners consume nearly 2100 MW from Texas’s central power grid.

Texas, the leading Bitcoin mining capital of the world, is just a phase away from passing the most significant anti-Bitcoin mining bill. On Tuesday, the State Committee in Austin approved the bill with zero opposition votes, moving it to the “uncontested” list. Currently, it is in the queue in the Texas House to be amended as a law.

The Bill, Senate Bill 1751, is targeted at ensuring the “regulation and tax treatment” of Bitcoin mining facilities in Texas. Three key senators Lois Kolkhorst, Donna Campell, and Robert Nichols sponsored and introduced the bill in the Senate on March 7.

This anti-Bitcoin mining bill, if passed, will restrict miners’ power demands from the Texas grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Significantly, it imposes two notable restrictions on Bitcoin miners. One, it will eliminate tax reductions on certain properties. Second, it will limit the miner’s participation in the “demand response program” to less than 10% of the total load. Particularly, the bill demands any mining operator that consumes electricity exceeding 10 megawatts (MW) to register as a “large flexible load.”  

Future of Bitcoin Mining in Texas

Famous Bitcoin advocates work collaboratively to uphold Texas as the dominant Bitcoin mining capital in the world. Prominently, two of them — Pierre Rochard, VP of Research at Riot Platforms, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firms, and Dennis Porter, CEO of Satoshi Action Fund – showed up in the State Capitol to voice their opposition against the bill. 

Famous Bitcoin advocates work collaboratively to uphold Texas as the dominant Bitcoin mining capital in the world. Prominently, two of them — Pierre Rochard, VP of Research at Riot Platforms, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firms, and Dennis Porter, CEO of Satoshi Action Fund – showed up in the State Capitol to voice their opposition against the bill. 

Texas is known to be one of the prime crypto mining hubs. But the miners’ increased electricity consumption concerns the lawmakers. The Texas Blockchain Council reported that Bitcoin mining used 2100 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the ERCOT grid. Hence, the regulators are keen to reduce the energy-intensive mining operations in the state. Similar to New York, Texas is also turning into a harsh regulator of crypto mining.

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