A letter was sent to the Environmental Protection Agency that had the signatures of 14 House representatives and senators of the United States. The contents of the letter highlight the benefits associated with cryptocurrency mining.

Balancing Environmental Concerns and Innovation

The letter was sent to the EPA on Thursday and the government agency was requested to analyze crypto mining’s potential impact in order to strike a balance between environmental worries and innovation. The US lawmakers who signed the letter included pro-bitcoin Representative Tom Emmer and Senator Cynthia Lummis, who has recently put forward a crypto bill in Congress.

The letter was addressed to Michael Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the 15 representatives and senators, energy grids can be stabilized with the help of crypto mining and they also gave examples of mining activities that are being conducted with the use of renewable energy resources and flare gas.

The contents of the letter dictated that the country’s economic future could benefit from these digital assets, along with the associated mining activities. It further said that giving preference to one technology over the other, such as proof-of-stake over proof-of-work, would end up stifling innovation, thereby limiting efficiencies and would also eat into any future economic benefits.

Signatories of The Bill

Other than Emmer and Lummis, the other US lawmakers who also added their signatures to the letter included members of the Republican party, such as Steve Daines, Kevin Cramer and Bill Hagerty. The message also received approval from House Representatives including Brian Steil, Ralph Norman, Andy Barr, William Timmons, Bill Huizenga, Pete Sessions, Patrick McHenry, Anthony Gonzales, and Bill Posey.

A Different Letter

The request by the Republican lawmakers to the EPA administrator is in direct contrast to another letter sent to the agency back in April. This had been sent by a bipartisan group that comprised of 22 US lawmakers, who had expressed their concerns about the impact of the crypto mining operations in the country. The lawmakers had claimed that the companies had a high carbon footprint and were increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, they said that the crypto mining companies were not working in accordance with the Clean Water Act, or the Clean Air Act. The letter sent to Regan in April said that communities were being poisoned due to these activities and that the industry had to be held accountable for ensuring it operates in a sustainable manner.

A response was issued to the letter by the Bitcoin Mining Council back in May when it sent a letter of its own. This letter alleged that a number of claims the lawmakers had made about mining were inaccurate. Some environmental groups, such as Sierra Club and Greenpeace, had also urged government agencies to come up with new approaches for dealing with crypto mining.

More recently, a bill has been introduced in New York that would impose a ban on crypto mining for two years if it is signed into law.