Benzinga - Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA.) has voiced concerns about the environmental impact and energy consumption of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining in the U.S.
What Happened: In a post on Monday, Warren argued that the rising popularity of cryptocurrency is causing increased energy bills for millions of American families while enriching crypto executives.
I've been ringing the alarm about the risks that Bitcoin poses to our power grids and climate. @EPA and @ENERGY should use their authority to require cryptominers to disclose their energy use and emissions.— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 17, 2023
According to Warren, Bitcoin mining consumes a massive amount of energy that is roughly equivalent to the energy usage of an additional 3.5 million gas-powered cars.
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She called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy to take action and ensure that crypto miners disclose their energy usage and emissions.
Why It Matters: This is not the first time that the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining has been questioned. The process of validating transactions on the network involves solving complex mathematical equations that consume electricity.
Earlier, in October 2022 Warren sent a letter to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and its CEO Pablo Vegas. In the letter, Warren accused Texas of being a "deregulated safe harbor" for crypto mining firms.
Price Action At the time of writing, BTC was trading up 0.11% over the last 24 hours at $29,915.91, according to Benzinga Pro.
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