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House Committee Reports Out Cryptocurrency Mining Bill Without Permit Moratorium; Resolution To Encourage Geothermal Energy From Abandoned Mine Pools; Hearing On Gas Facility Setbacks Oct. 30

On October 16, the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee reported out a cryptocurrency mining bill without a permit moratorium and a resolution encouraging geothermal energy from abandoned mine pools.

Rep. Vitali announced the Committee will hold an October 30 hearing on House Bill 170 (Otten-D-Chester) extending setback safety zones around natural gas facilities.

Cryptocurrency Bill

House Bill 1476 (Vitali-D-Delaware) establishes reporting requirements for cryptocurrency mining operations on energy use and other information about their facilities and requires DEP to do an impact study of their operations.

An amendment was offered by the prime sponsor Rep. Greg Vitali, Majority Chair of the Committee, to take out the two-year moratorium on air permits was adopted by the Committee by a party-line vote- Democrats supporting, Republicans opposed.

“What this amendment does is weaken the bill to remove a two-year moratorium on the DEP issuing new permits to cryptocurrency operations, so we're just taking that out,” said Rep. Vitali. “So if this amendment gets in the bill [it is] weakened, so [it’s] just a reporting and a study bill.”

Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron), Minority Chair of the Committee, said, “I'm strongly opposed to the bill and will concede that the amendment actually, as you stated, weakens the bill.

“I still have concerns with the amendment. I think even the reporting requirements are burdensome and not necessary, so I'm opposed to the amendment.

“Also, I have to point out that a lot of these operations utilize waste coal and actually are beneficial to cleaning up waste coal in the Commonwealth, which I think is beneficial. But, I think that the bill, even as proposed to be amended, is problematic. So I urge a no vote on the amendment and the bill.”

The amended bill was reported out of Committee by a largely party-line vote-- Republicans opposed.

Climate Week

The discussion over House Resolution 228 (Otten-D-Chester) designating the week of October 1 through 7, 2023, as "Climate Week" in Pennsylvania also became a partisan debate.

Rep. Causer (R-Cameron), Minority Chair, said, “Number one, the week that is seeking to be designated has already passed, so I don't think it's important for us to do this. Number two, there's significant objectionable language in this particular resolution that I don't think is the right thing to do, and so I urge a negative vote on the resolution.”

Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton/Union) said, “When Democrats are pushing bills like banning gas powered mowers and gas powered stoves in New York City, all under the name of a climate control agenda, we can all see what is really going on here.

“The truth is in Genesis 8:22, it says, "As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

“I'll say that again, "Will never cease." Of course, we are to be good stewards of God's creation, but not through a forceful climate control global agenda. I'm a no.”

[Note: Reading all of Genesis 8 puts 8:22 in context. It describes God’s promise to Noah to never again send a flood to destroy life on Earth, even though-- as Genesis 8:21 says-- “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”-- meaning even though man will continue to sin.]

The resolution was reported out by a party-line vote-- Republicans opposing.

Mine Water Geothermal

There was bipartisan support for House Resolution 185 (Webster-D-Montgomery) directing the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a study on the feasibility of using geothermal energy technologies that utilize abandoned mining locations and operations in the Commonwealth.

Rep. Joe Webster (D-Montgomery) prime sponsor of the resolution said, “Geothermal technologies are making enormous efficiency gains in operational use both across the United States and overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom where coal mines are similar to those in some parts of Pennsylvania.

“But market analysis points out that initial costs are high for prospective developers. That includes site discovery, drilling, and environmental concerns when they're located in new locations.

“Pennsylvania's [underground] coal mines, especially our old abandoned coal mines, have the potential to kickstart that investment and change the timeline.

“There are jobs here, union workers, mine workers for drillers, potentially for electrical workers, and especially for our technologists who are studying this new technology. Then we would all be proud in talking about Pennsylvania and energy.”

Rep. Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne), second sponsor on the resolution and prime sponsor last session, said, “From my perspective, Northeastern Pennsylvania has a rich history of anthracite coal throughout my region, and a lot of active drilling helped the Industrial Revolution, helped the war efforts all throughout the 1940s.

“[The industry was] pretty much shut down during the Knox Mine Disaster [in 1959], where we had a cave in from the Susquehanna River through our mining systems and flooded our systems all throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania, crippling the industry pretty massively overnight, shutting down a lot of the active drilling and really was a massive impact to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“As we continue to recover economically out of this, I see this as an opportunity to take what has become something of a liability and be able to turn it into a renewable resource that can help spur jobs, help create a new renewable energy resource from what was previously used to mine anthracite coal throughout our region.

“My understanding is that the Department of Defense is actually doing procurement, looking at this for national security reasons and other reasons to help expand geothermal right now and with what we see with utility prices going on throughout the Commonwealth right now,

“I see this as something that we should be doing to look if there's a role for this throughout not only just my region, but across the Commonwealth as well, while providing those job opportunities. I want to thank the committee for considering this resolution.

“I think it's something that really will have a big opportunity here for the Commonwealth

“I know that Rep. Webster and I over the weekend and even other conversations talked about even looking at possibly expanding this, that there's a lot of other interest for heating and cooling through industrial processes,” added Rep. Kaufer.

The resolution was reported out of Committee by a bipartisan vote, however, Republican Reps. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton), Joe Hamm (R-Lycoming) and Dallas Kephart (R-Clearfield) voted in the negative.

Click Here to watch a video of the meeting.

Hearing Oct. 30 On Gas Facility Setbacks

Rep. Vitali announced the Committee will hold an October 30 hearing on House Bill 170 (Otten-D-Chester) extending setback safety zones around natural gas facilities. Read more here on the bill. Read more on similar Senate Bill.

Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) serves as Majority Chair of the House Environmental Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-7647 or sending email to: gvitali@pahouse.net. Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5075 or by sending email to: mcauser@pahousegop.com.

(Photo: Proposed Talen Energy bitcoin mining operation.)

NewsClips:

-- PA Capital-Star: PA House Environmental Leader Guts His Own Bill To Manage Cryptocurrency Mining Growth

-- Lancaster Farming: Legislation Setting Rules For Cryptocurrency Mining Gutted, Threatening Rural Pennsylvania

-- The Center Square - Anthony Hennen: House Committee Revives Plans For Impact Study On Cryptocurrency Mining

-- MCall: Panther Creek Power Plant Wants To Burn Tires To Fuel Its Cryptocurrency Mining Operation, Why Environmentalists Are Fighting It

Related Articles To Agenda Items:

-- House Environmental Committee Holds May 1 Hearing On Cryptocurrency And Climate Change

-- Leadership Opportunity: Pennsylvania Should Make Mine Water Geothermal A Key Part Of Its Clean Energy Transformation

-- UK Government: Mine Water Heat - A Proven Success

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - October 14 to 20 - 6 More Abandoned Conventional Wells; Conventional Gas Migration Incident; Inactive Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]