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Even as cryptocurrencies collapse in value, oil and gas drillers from Texas to Pennsylvania are using methane to power portable data centers that mine wasteful crypto like Bitcoin. In some cases, the methane being extracted would have stayed in the ground if not for the crypto operations. In other cases, the methane is being flared at the drill site rather than being collected and piped to homes or power plants where it could be of use before contributing to climate change.
E&E News reports that in Texas, where the power grid struggles to provide enough energy for residents during heat waves and winter storms, the state's grid operator expects 17 gigawatts of new demand by 2026, mostly associated with crypto operations.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports that in Pennsylvania, a company installed 30 gas-fired generators at a well pad without state authorization. The operator there, Big Dog Energy, is opening stranded gas wells that aren't connected to pipelines, so without on-site generation, the fossil fuels would have stayed in the ground.
Most popular cryptocurrencies are designed to use massive amounts of electricity to "secure" their networks by solving increasingly hard math problems. According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin uses 204 terawatt-hours of energy a year, resulting in a carbon footprint comparable to the entire Czech Republic. A single Bitcoin transaction uses as much power as an average U.S. house consumes in 71 days and emits more than 2,500 pounds of CO2, equivalent to the carbon footprint of more than 2.5 million Visa transactions.
Researchers at the Sierra Club looked through the filings of a dozen publicly-traded crypto companies this spring and could not find a single contract to buy power from wind or solar facilities. Instead, crypto miners are buying electricity from aging coal or natural gas plants, exacerbating climate change and slowing the renewable energy transition.
New podcast! The Gila Wilderness at 100
The Gila Wilderness was the first wilderness area designated in the U.S., and it’s coming up on its 100-year anniversary in 2024. In honor of that, Torrey House Press and WildEarth Guardians put out a collection of essays about what makes the Gila Wilderness special, titled “First & Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100.” Kate and Aaron talk to two contributors—USFWS biologist Leeanna Torres and Apache backcountry guide Joe Saenz—about what makes the Gila special, as well as the threats it’s facing today, from military flyovers to attempts to dam the Gila River. Then, WildEarth Guardians’ Southwest Conservation Manager Madeleine Carey tells us how her group is working to protect the Greater Gila region. This episode is part of the Center for Western Priorities’ Road to 30: Postcards series, which highlights places across the country that are in need of protection and can set America on track to protect 30 percent of its land and waters by 2030.
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When NGS (the Navajo Generating Station) shut down, there are some assets that the Navajo Nation has acquired coming from that facility. And how do we turn that location, (those) materials, into an opportunity for growth? I am impressed by the communities surrounding that area — that they’re looking for creative ways to approach that. That’s how it should be. It should start with what the community needs and wants, and how to make sure that the communities benefit from the work that's happening there. It should always start at the community, and I think that's what they've been doing.
