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U.S. lawmaker and bitcoin advocate Cynthia Lummis has indicated that cryptocurrency miners are welcome in Wyoming. In a recent interview, the senator defended bitcoin’s carbon footprint and later invited miners to her home state on social media.
With the ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency mining in China, companies in the business of coin minting have been actively looking for friendlier jurisdictions to relocate their operations. Some perspective destinations have emerged in the U.S., with Texas and Florida now being among the prominent examples. Both states can offer crypto miners access to affordable energy.
Wyoming, which has maintained a positive attitude towards cryptocurrencies for some time, can easily become the next bitcoin mining hotspot. Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a well-known supporter of Bitcoin, recently took to Twitter to welcome crypto miners to the state urging them to reach out.
Lummis tweeted her call on Saturday posting an excerpt of her interview from the CNBC Financial Advisor Summit in which she defended Bitcoin’s environmental record. The senator referred to research conducted at the University of Cambridge, according to which bitcoin mining uses about 40% renewable energy while the indicator stands at only 12% in the non-bitcoin mining economy. She emphasized:
Bitcoin mining is already more environmentally adapted to non-carbon emitting energy sources.
The Wyoming representative in the U.S. Senate also turned attention to the “innovation that’s happening behind the scenes” in the crypto mining industry, providing an example with her own energy-rich state. Wyoming is a producer of oil and gas and when a new well is drilled, initially it’s not connected to a pipeline, Lummis explained. Bitcoin miners are helping to utilize the gas that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere with mobile mining platforms that can be installed and operated close to the source.
“I would say – don’t judge bitcoin mining as an energy bad guy. There are a lot of things going on to prove otherwise,” the lawmaker concluded. Cynthia Lummis also noted that cryptocurrency mining is helping the drilling industry in a way that keeps carbon out of the air while using it to produce another product in the form of bitcoin.
The race to attract crypto miners is on in the U.S. with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez recently giving his best to entice mining companies that are leaving China. “Hey, we want you to be here,” Suarez addressed them in another interview with CNBC, highlighting that his region relies on nuclear power which is a source of clean and cheap electrical energy.
