The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy called for the U.S. to conduct further research on the energy impact of crypto mining in a new report published Thursday.
In the report, among the first publicly available responses to U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order on cryptocurrencies, the office detailed its approach to the question of what sort of impact crypto mining has on the environment, including what the scale of the impact is and how different cryptocurrencies differ in their energy needs.
“Global electricity generation for the crypto-assets with the largest market capitalizations resulted in a combined 140 ± 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year (Mt CO2/y), or about 0.3% of global annual GHG emissions,” the report said.
The report recommended the White House work to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, “ensure energy reliability,” boost energy efficiency rules, collect data to better understand the impact from crypto mining and conduct other research.
“Should these measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, the Administration should explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation, to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining,” the report said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
