Senator Elizabeth Warren of the United States has requested details about the country’s first carbon-neutral Bitcoin miner.
Warren formally requested details on the company’s power generation and Bitcoin mining operations in New York State in a letter to Greenidge Generation Holdings Chief Executive Officer Jeff Kirt.
She stated that this information was required to comprehend the company’s possible impact on climate change, the local ecosystem, and the cost of electricity for retail customers.
“Given Bitcoin mining’s extraordinarily high energy consumption and carbon emissions, mining operations at Greenidge and other plants raise concerns about their effects on the global environment, local ecosystems, and consumer electricity costs,” Warren said.
Warren is known for her outspoken stance on cryptocurrencies, but this is the first time she has pressed a crypto-related corporation for details.
Mining is another facet of cryptocurrencies that is gaining attention, with energy consumption comparable to that of some large developed countries.
Greenidge’s response
Greenidge responded quickly, noting that it would provide the information necessary to demonstrate that “the facility complies with all of New York’s nation-leading environmental standards, creates economic opportunity in a rural area of the state, and serves as a model for crypto mining with widespread local support.”
Greenidge, which went public on the Nasdaq earlier this year, bills itself as the first carbon-neutral Bitcoin miner in the United States, after erecting its first natural gas-powered factory in Dresden, New York.
The Atlas Holdings-controlled company wants to use zero- and low-carbon sources of electricity for future mining activities, such as in South Carolina, in addition to purchasing carbon offsets.
Summoned to testify
Miners aren’t the only ones who are finding themselves increasingly reliant on congressional requests.
Several key executives of cryptocurrency-related organizations were summoned to testify before the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks are among those who have been summoned.
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