U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren sends letter to six bitcoin miners asking for more information on energy consumption

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter on Thursday to six other miners expanding her investigation into Bitcoin miners’ energy use and their environmental footprint. Warren wrote to Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings, Stronghold Digital Mining, Bitdeer, Bitfury Group and Bit Digital, questioning their “unusually high energy usage.” In December, Warren wrote to bitcoin miner Greenidge expressing her concerns about its high energy consumption. In the new letter, Warren and her colleagues asked each miner to detail electricity consumption, scale plans, agreements with utility companies and the impact on energy costs for consumers and small businesses by Feb. 10. “The ultra-high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with bitcoin mining could undermine our efforts to address the climate crisis, not to mention the detrimental impact of crypto on the local environment and electricity prices,” Warren said in the letter.