Fourteen US Senators and House Representatives have signed a letter altogether to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acclaiming what they believe about the benefits of crypto mining.
A lot of US Senators, including crypto-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Tom Emmer, addressed EPA administrator Michael Regan, requesting the government agency to analyze the potential impact of digital assets mining in order to balance innovation with environmental concerns in the recent letter.
The group further asserted that mining could have a substantial stabilizing effect on energy grids and gave examples of mining operations utilizing flared gas and renewable energy sources.
According to the letter, digital assets and their related mining activities are important to the economic future of the United States. And that favoring one technology over another, including with the algorithms Proof-of-Work (PoW) versus Proof-of-Stake, could smother innovation and deplete future economic gains, and can also limit affiliated efficiencies.
Along with Lummis and Emmer, the lawmakers who signed the letter were all members of the Republican party, consisting of Senators Kevin Cramer, Bill Hagerty, and Steve Daines. The message to the EPA administrator Regan was further approved by House Representatives Pete Sessions, Patrick McHenry, Bill Posey, Andy Barr, Bill Huizenga, Anthony Gonzales, William Timmons, Ralph Norman, and Brian Steil.
The Republicans’ request to Regan is a bit contradicting to an April letter to the Agency from a bipartisan of twenty-two lawmakers. They put forward severe concerns revolving around crypto firms running in the United States. They asserted that the entities contributed to the greenhouse gas emissions and were not functioning according to the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act.
The April letter highlighted that crypto mining is poisoning their communities. And the fast-expanding crypto space needs to be held accountable to ensure it functions in a sustainable and just way to protect the communities.
Last month, the Bitcoin Mining Council replied to this letter while alleging that many lawmakers‘ claims on mining were actually inappropriate. Several environmental groups then urged Biden’s government agencies to execute new approaches in their response to the mining of digital assets.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/06/18/us-lawmakers-urge-epa-to-think-about-the-potential-crypto-mining-benefits/