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Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

theguardian.com

21–30 of 97 posts

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#21

Everyone wants to ban bitcoin mining, but nobody wants to tax carbon emissions and end industry subsidies.

> but nobody wants to tax carbon emissions and end industry subsidies

I rarely downvote, but downvoted this because it’s blatantly false.

Literally hours ago:

https://wsau.com/2022/02/18/singapores-carbon-tax-to-rise-fi...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-18/singapore...

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#22

I heard an interesting argument for Bitcoin recently. It represents a way to move energy around the world wirelessly. For instance, you can use geothermal power in a very isolated, cold climate that previously would be unusable for any purpose. As Bitcoin’s power needs are decentralized, all it needs is an internet connection. You could have a Bitcoin mine in outer space, if you wanted. Not sure why I’m being downvot…

Interesting. I could heat my home with bitcoin like that. /s

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#23

Everyone wants to ban bitcoin mining, but nobody wants to tax carbon emissions and end industry subsidies.

Carbon taxes are very popular, both in the US and globally. I would guess they are more popular than bitcoin bans in the US.

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#24

I don't understand how this is profitable? I'd read that many coal plants were being kept running purely because the grid owners were allowed to charge on a cost plus basis, and closing coal would save consumers billions. So how can these plants be cheaper than solar and wind? Is this somehow a dodge of carbon fees or regulations because it's not going to the grid?

They recycled old power plant. That is a huge CO2 offset, building new plant would had huge emmisions.

Renewables have been cheaper (in monetary and carbon) than running existing coal plants for a while. Even more so if you reuse the sites grid connection. So it still doesn't add up to me.

Clearly the couldn't sell energy before if they were about to shutdown, so there must be something different about the miners compared with their usual market, can't just be cheaper.

In the article they seem to be suggesting they couldn't buy renewable power in 2020 which seems odd, but no follow up detail on it, apparently they're phasing coal out in a year so it may just have been a short term thing.

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#25

I heard an interesting argument for Bitcoin recently. It represents a way to move energy around the world wirelessly. For instance, you can use geothermal power in a very isolated, cold climate that previously would be unusable for any purpose. As Bitcoin’s power needs are decentralized, all it needs is an internet connection. You could have a Bitcoin mine in outer space, if you wanted. Not sure why I’m being downvot…

So by "move energy" you mean "move energy demand".

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve switched the conditions for taxation here: the GP suggested value to society, not adherence to preexisting laws. One of the standard refrains when justifying internet piracy is that intellectual property is actually a net harm to society, so I don’t think the connection you’ve made follows.

Okay, what metric are we using to determine "value to society"?

I don’t think we have to agree on a single metric to see that running a coal-fired power plant for the sole purpose of cracking hashes has marginal, if any value to society. And that’s before we even factor in the ridiculously negative externalities manifest in digging coal out of the earth and burning it.

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#27

I don't understand how this is profitable? I'd read that many coal plants were being kept running purely because the grid owners were allowed to charge on a cost plus basis, and closing coal would save consumers billions. So how can these plants be cheaper than solar and wind? Is this somehow a dodge of carbon fees or regulations because it's not going to the grid?

They recycled old power plant. That is a huge CO2 offset, building new plant would had huge emmisions.

False dichotomy; they could have done neither. NOT operating an old coal plant NOR building a new plant would have produced zero emissions.

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that why you think they are called greenhouse gasses? OMG

Most Greenhouses supplement CO2 to increase growth in plants since there's no natural O2 -> CO2 back-cycle in the greenhouse. So yes, Greenhouses use CO2. Reference in Commercial Greenhouse Industry - https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/equip/co2-generators/

That's not why they're called greenhouse gasses, though. They create the greenhouse effect for the entire planet.

Re: Bitcoin miners revived a dying fossil fuel plant – then CO2 emissions soared

#30
post #3

Everyone wants to ban bitcoin mining, but nobody wants to tax carbon emissions and end industry subsidies.

It isn't obvious that mining goes away at any cost. Personally I'm in the "do both" camp. Have a simple carbon tax, but also find some inoffensive way to get rid of the mining. Both sound hard.

While we're picking and choosing who gets to consume electricity, let's get rid of video gaming, casinos, porn websites, etc.
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