# Understanding the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act of 2023

This bill is about making cryptocurrency mining operations report their environmental impact and follow air pollution rules. Right now, large-scale crypto mining operations—the industrial facilities that use massive amounts of electricity to validate cryptocurrency transactions—don't have to tell the government how much energy they use or what pollution they produce. This bill changes that by requiring the biggest mining operations to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants, similar to how power plants and factories already do.

The bill focuses on mining operations that use at least 5 megawatts of power (roughly enough electricity to power 4,000 homes). These operations would have to report both direct emissions from their own equipment and indirect emissions from the electricity they buy from the grid. The Environmental Protection Agency would create new rules within a year to set up a reporting system, and then conduct an assessment to see which mining operations might be illegally operating without proper air pollution permits. The bill also requires a comprehensive study of crypto mining's environmental effects, including its impact on climate goals, water usage, electronic waste, and whether mining operations are disproportionately located near low-income communities.

For most people, this bill won't directly affect daily life, but it could have broader consequences. If crypto mining becomes more regulated and transparent, it might increase operating costs for mining companies, which could affect cryptocurrency prices and the industry's growth. The bill essentially treats large crypto mining like any other industrial operation that consumes significant energy and produces emissions—bringing it under the same environmental oversight as traditional power-intensive industries. The $10 million allocated for studies and enforcement suggests the government is taking this seriously as an environmental issue.

Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act of 2023

Huffman, Jared

Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act of 2023 This bill establishes greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reporting and related requirements for certain crypto-asset mining operations, such as facilities that mine Bitcoin. The bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise reporting requirements under the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program to require crypto-asset mining operations that consume five megawatts of electricity or more to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the EPA. The EPA must also designate such operations as a source category of GHG emissions that is subject to greenhouse gas reporting requirements and related monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements.In addition, the EPA must request information from crypto-asset mining operations and assess the extent to which any operations are improperly operating without a valid and current permit under the Clean Air Act. The bill also expands the meaning of data center under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to include facilities in which two or more computers are mining crypto-assets. Thus, such facilities are included in the scope of energy efficiency programs for data centers under that act. Finally, the EPA must study the environmental impacts of crypto-asset mining.