While Texans suffered from record-breaking extreme heat this summer and sky-high electricity bills, Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin mining company, was getting paid by Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) for simply shutting down. In August alone, Riot made $31.7 million dollars in energy credits for cutting back its energy use.
Bitcoin mining operations in Rockdale, Texas.
Bitdeer – a firm spun off from Chinese bitcoin mining giant Bitmain – is four-tenths of a mile down the road from Riot Blockchain, one of the biggest publicly traded mining companies in America. Both are tenants of property once occupied by aluminum maker Alcoa.
While Texans suffered from record-breaking extreme heat this summer and sky-high electricity bills, Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin mining company, was getting paid by Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) for simply shutting down. In August alone, Riot made $31.7 million dollars in energy credits for cutting back its energy use.
Washington, DC (September 7, 2023)—While Texans suffered from record-breaking extreme heat this summer and sky-high electricity bills, Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin mining company, was getting paid by Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) for simply shutting down. In August alone, Riot made $31.7 million dollars in energy credits for cutting back its energy use. That was nearly four times what the company made mining Bitcoin. Meanwhile the climate change fueled heatwave threatened people’s lives who struggled in triple digit temperatures and damaged infrastructure.
Joshua Archer, Lead Bitcoin Campaigner, said: “While Texans suffer from extreme heat, Riot boasts about its record-breaking earnings of energy credits and their controversial arrangement with ERCOT. Talk about a bad deal for Texans. Riot claims that it is stabilizing the grid by shutting down during heat waves, but how can paying Riot be justified while Texans have to pay exorbitant prices just to keep the lights on? This deal only benefits one party—Riot Platforms. This is why we are campaigning to innovate Bitcoin away from proof-of-work mining and rein in its excessive energy consumption. If Bitcoin wasn’t so energy-intensive to begin with, everyday ratepayers wouldn’t be stuck footing the bill while companies like Riot Platforms line their pockets.”
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Contact: Gujari Singh, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected], 631-404-9977
Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.
