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Trump uses Bitcoin to save fossil fuels
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday embraced cryptocurrency for its ability to, in his words, help make the United States “energy dominant.”
His comments, which come six years after he declared the cryptocurrency a “scam,” mark a new argument for slowing the wave of coal plant closures and expanding natural gas growth as he runs against the president Joe Biden, who made the fight against climate change a central element of his first mandate.
Cryptocurrency mining operations can use thousands of high-powered computers that gobble up huge amounts of electricity, making it perhaps a natural ally in Trump’s defense of fossil fuels.
“Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to the central bank digital currency. “Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia and the radical communist left. We want all remaining Bitcoins to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us to be DOMINANT ENERGY!!!””
In 2019, Trump tweeted that cryptocurrency could be used for illegal activities and that its value was “highly volatile and based on nothing.”
According to the US agency, cryptocurrency mining currently accounts for up to 2.3% of total electricity consumption in the United States US Energy Information Administration. Such demand could pose “strain on the electricity grid during periods of peak demand, the potential for increased electricity prices, as well as effects on energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,” the EIA found. Cryptocurrency mining in the United States has accelerated dramatically since 2019, in part due to strict new rules against it in China.
But it also represents a potentially lucrative opportunity for the fossil fuel industry, which Trump has promised to help if elected. Large cryptocurrency mining operations, which can be equipped with 20,000 or more computers stacked in shipping containers, are sometimes located near energy sources such as coal or gas plants. Others have used hydropower and methane-derived electricity in waste disposal plants.
The Biden administration has focused on regulating the cryptocurrency industry, saying it can increase the cost of electricity for households and contribute to climate change. Last year, Biden proposed a tax on crypto miners equal to 30% of the cost of electricity.
“Cryptomining companies do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices and the impact of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate,” it said in a statement White House briefing. time.
Biden continues to show distrust of the industry. Him recently vetoed a bill supported by Republicans and some prominent Democrats who would repeal the Securities and Exchange Commission’s guidance on cryptocurrencies.
Biden’s campaign declined to comment.
Trump, meanwhile, did he intensified his attacks on Biden, using cryptocurrency as a political cudgel.
But there is also significant bipartisan concern about the industry.
On Wednesday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a close Trump ally — wrote on X that Texas is being crushed by cryptocurrency miners. Demand on the state’s electric grid is expected to double to 150,000 megawatts in just six years.
While artificial intelligence and business growth account for some of this, he said the majority of demand comes from cryptocurrency mining and data centers, which are “crashing our network and turning the lights out.”
“We need to take a close look at these two sectors,” Patrick wrote. “They produce very few jobs compared to the incredible demands they place on our network.”
Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said the industry would not face regulations if Trump is elected.
“Cryptocurrency innovators and others in the tech sector are under attack from Biden and Democrats,” he said in a statement. “As Biden stifles innovation with more regulation and higher taxes, President Trump stands ready to encourage American leadership in this and other emerging technologies.”
Trump’s comments Tuesday came a day after he met with representatives of cryptocurrency companies at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Among them was Brian Morgenstern, a lobbyist for a bitcoin company called Riot Platforms and a former Trump administration official. Morgenstern was Trump’s deputy communications director and deputy assistant secretary at the Treasury Department.
“President Trump will protect your right to own Bitcoin, to mine Bitcoin, to transact with Bitcoin, and, for many of us, to work in the Bitcoin industry,” Morgenstern he wrote in an editorial this week in Bitcoin Magazine. “We believe it will support the ability of Bitcoin miners to help revolutionize the financial and energy sectors in the United States and maintain American economic leadership for the future.”
Reporter Jack Quinn contributed.
This story also appears in Energywire.