Stronghold Digital Mining, a Pennsylvanian crypto-mining company, is currently seeking approval to produce up to 15% of its energy using shredded tires, at its Panther Creek plant in Nesquehoning. Local environmental activists are preparing to oppose the initiative.
We are calling on state regulators and DEP with @earthjustice@pennfuture to deny a permitting request from Stronghold Digital Mining to burn tires as fuel for its bitcoin mining operations.
According to local media, Stronghold filed an application with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in July. However, it was only last week when the information broke out in the public sphere. Officially, the company requested the use of so-called Tire Derived Fuel (TDF), citing the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval to use this kind of energy source at other industrial facilities in the state.
TDF has indeed been legal in the U.S. since 1991 and, in combination with other fuels, is being used at four plants in Pennsylvania. But local environment activists highlight the dubious status of the facilities, already consuming TDF and insist that the crypto mining facility shouldn’t be granted such permission. Russell Zerbo, an advocate with Clean Air Council, said in the environment-focused West Pennsylvania radio show The Allegheny Front:
“Because [Panther Creek] uses the electricity it produces to generate cryptocurrency, rather than selling that electricity to the energy grid, the plant should be completely re-permitted as a solid waste incinerator that would be subject to increased air pollution monitoring requirements.”
Charles McPhedran, an attorney with a public interest environmental law organization Earthjustice, said that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions skyrocketed after Stronghold took over the Panther Creek plant in 2021. The company didn’t shy away from using the coal to mine crypto, though consuming the supply of the waste coal, generously available in Pennsylvania. According to some estimates, there are 2 billion cubic yards of waste coal still polluting the environment throughout the state’s territory.
Recently Stronghold revealed its financial results for Q2 2023. It mined 626 Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2023, which is 43% more than in Q4 2022 and represents 1% sequential growth compared to Q1 2023, despite the Bitcoin network hash rate rise of 39% and 23% during the same periods respectively. The company generated revenue of $18.2 million and a net loss of $11.7 million
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
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Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.