Thread by @jessimckenzi

I wrote about a bitcoin mining trend that isn't getting nearly enough attention.

Bitcoin miners/fossil fuel companies—they are increasingly one & the same—are buying portable generators, hauling in server farms in shipping containers & mining bitcoin right at the wellheads

For the past year or so, all the stories about bitcoin mining at oil/gas wells was about using "waste" gas released during oil mining. That's not what's going on here. These are gas wells that were opened & closed & this gas would have stayed in the ground without bitcoin mining

At one site in Pennsylvania, a company brought in 30 generators and started mining without getting telling anyone, without getting permission to operate generators, without getting permits. The DEP only found out when they visited. thebulletin.org/2022/05/this-g…

“They seem to be at least trying to claim that they don’t even need a permit,” @RobAltenburg said. “They’re either seeming to claim that they’re part of their existing permit for the gas wells...or...that they’re somehow exempted because of the nature of these sources...”

As far as I can tell Big Dog Energy's two bitcoin mining sites in PA are still up & running. A bitcoin mine in Alberta ran for 364 days without permits; another ran for over 400 days. Often authorities don't find out about these operations unless someone complains about the noise

There is an entire cottage industry of people who mine bitcoin at gas wells, and are using that expertise to help others do the same, with taglines like “Mine Bitcoin Anywhere!” thebulletin.org/2022/05/this-g…

Some of these businesses claim they can "extract 10x more value from our natural gas"; at the very least, gas companies can make more than twice what they would selling to the grid by mining bitcoin.

And there aren't a lot of guardrails in place to keep this in check. Kentucky enviro agency says it's legal; Pennsylvania didn't respond to my questions, but if a project qualifies for a permit, it can be hard/impossible for a state agency to say no.

“DEP doesn’t get to say ‘We’re not going to let you do this because we think it’s a bad idea’...They’ve got to say ‘Do you meet these criteria or not?’ And the criteria were not written in a world where bitcoin mining was even a thought.” —@Altenburg thebulletin.org/2022/05/this-g…

I will add that even when they are burning fossil fuels straight from the ground, bitcoiners will claim to be doing the environment a favor.

Yes, methane leaking at abandoned wells is bad, but burning it is not the only or best solution to reducing those emissions.