By Alyshia Hercules, Fox56 WOLF-TV
April 4, 2023
Carbon Co. — Environmental groups PennFuture, EarthJustice and the Clean Air Council. Say that crypto mining poses a major threat to public health and the environment.
The Panther Creek power plant is a waste coal fired power plant located in Carbon county.
The previous owners of the power plant in 2016 filed an application to shift to crypto mining operations at the plant. The Stronghold Digital Mining Company purchased the plant in 2021.
Thousands of bitcoin machines require a large amount of power to run them. This leads to coal being burned to generate the electricity, the practice is known as waste coal.
Robert Altenburg, the director of the Pennfuture Energy Center tells me that waste coal is a major threat to the public.
“ There is a significant problem with waste coal littering the landscape, but the waste coal plants' solution is to burn it, so what we're doing is taking pollution problems on the land and making it a pollution problem that's in the air”, Altenburg said.
According to EarthJustice emissions of both sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen have skyrocketed since the Panther Creek Power Plant made its switch to Cryptomining.
“Waste Coal because it’s a low energy value for every megawatt power of energy they generate, it generates more pollution than even a conventional coal plant.
Charles McPhedren, a senior attorney at for EarthJustice says that pollution caused from crypto mining should be a concern for everyone.
“Crypto currency in Pennsylvania is a big deal because these sorts of operations threaten to increase pollution where we have seen decreases", McPhedren said.
Health concerns that stem from higher levels of air pollution could include lung cancer, pneumonia and heart disease among many others.
These environmental and public health concerns have led to environmental groups' plea to end crypto mining and waste coal at the Panther Creek Power Plant and as a whole. The environmental groups tell me they are still awaiting a response and action from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.