More than 50 members of the bitcoin industry signed a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, refuting the concerns of a group of US congressmen about the environmental risks of mining.

Some members of Congress sent a letter to the EPA based on various misperceptions. #Bitcoin Mining We wrote a response to clear up confusion, correct inaccuracies, and educate the public.https://t.co/Ks6fh9Cg0Z

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) 2 May 2022

In April, a group of politicians asked the agency to review the mining industry for environmental risks and compliance with applicable laws.

The authors of the letter were particularly concerned about the Proof of Work consensus algorithm. According to them, a transaction on the Bitcoin network consumes as much electricity as the average American household in a month.

They drew attention to greenhouse gas emissions, the increase in the amount of e-waste due to the aging of equipment, and the opening of safe coal and gas power plants, among other problems.

The Bitcoin Mining Council, created in 2021, sent a response to the department in which the concerns of congressmen were analyzed point by point.

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, one of the founders of the organization, commented on the letter:

“Some members of Congress sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency based on various misconceptions about Bitcoin mining. We wrote the answer to clear confusion, correct inaccuracies, and educate the public.”

The authors noted that in most cases, politicians voiced claims that should have been directed at miners, energy-generating businesses. The industry’s data centers themselves are no different than those run by Google, Apple or Microsoft, and they are carbon-neutral electricity consumers.

How environmentally friendly electricity generation will be will depend on the decisions of politicians and the actions of relevant departments, not on the miners, the letter said. Additionally, bitcoin miners want to use green energy.

The energy consumption per bitcoin transaction announced by members of Congress has been called a delusion by industry representatives. We are talking about block mining, which is 99% associated with the issuance of new coins.

Regarding the large amount of electronic waste from industry, the authors of the response noted that congressmen used data from a clearly biased source. They pointed out that disposing of old mining equipment poses less environmental risk compared to other devices such as smartphones. ASIC miners are more suitable for recycling.

Also, the study cited by politicians pointed to an unrealistically low equipment life of 1.3 years. Industry representatives noted that miners even continue to use Antminer s7s and s9s devices (introduced in 2015 and 2017, respectively). The latter accounted for about 40% of the bitcoin hash rate in 2021.

The authors of the answer noted that the standard depreciation period for equipment in the industry is 3-5 years.

“Clearly, education is needed to ensure that public officials understand that the digital asset mining industry does not suffer from the environmental issues outlined in the letter. It is imperative that US officials understand that Bitcoin and Proof-of-Work innovation are the most important financial, economic and accounting innovations in human history. The signatories believe that by adopting the Bitcoin network and mining, the United States will become more innovative and economically sustainable.”

Recall that UN experts consider cryptocurrencies to be one of the risk factors for climate change.