Share this article
Pennsylvania Lawmaker Scraps Crypto Mining Ban to Advance Energy Conservation Bill
The state's Environmental Resources and Energy Committee accepted the amended bill on Monday by a slim margin.
Updated Oct 17, 2023, 11:05 a.m. Published Oct 17, 2023, 11:05 a.m.
A lawmaker in Pennsylvania's House of Representatives scrapped a proposed two-year moratorium on crypto mining permits from his own energy conservation bill to give it a better chance of moving forward.
Democratic Rep. Greg Vitali in June announced a plan to introduce the Cryptocurrency Energy Conservation Act specifically to impose the ban.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
"The crypto mining industry is a massive energy user," Vitali said at the time. "Globally, crypto mining consumes more energy than the countries of Argentina and Australia. This high level of energy usage places more stress on the environment and accelerates the climate crisis, in addition to raising costs for consumers."
But on Monday, he tabled the bill to the state House of Representatives' Environmental Resources and Energy Committee without the moratorium. Both the bill and the amendment were accepted by the committee – which he chairs – with the bill making it through by a margin of one vote.
Vitali told the Pennsylvania Capital Star on Monday that he'd learned the hard way that "there is not a high tolerance for strong environmental policy," and that he stripped the moratorium to give the bill a chance to make it to the House.
Now the moratorium is gone, the bill sets reporting requirements for certain crypto-mining facilities and calls for an impact study from the Department of Environmental Protection.
U.S. lawmakers are increasingly wary of crypto mining and its energy implications, and New York imposed a two-year moratorium on new mining facilities last year. Miners, meanwhile, are lobbying for friendlier policies in Washington DC.
Read more: The Bitcoin Mining Debate Is Ignoring the People Most Affected
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
U.S. Senate's Crypto Market Structure Bill Gets Messy as Calendar Weighs Down
The White House has shut down proposals, and lawmakers are circulating the Democrats' asks in what had been a close negotiation, revealing 11th-hour pressure.
What to know:
- Democrats shared a response to Republicans outlining their continuing priorities for a crypto market structure bill, which they said was intended to "reach an agreement and proceed towards a mark-up."
- The document laid out concerns with financial stability, market integrity and public officials' ability to trade and profit off of crypto, echoing concerns laid out in a framework Democrats shared in September.
- The Senate is running out of time in the Congressional calendar to hold a markup hearing — a key step toward progressing the bill — before 2025 ends.
Top Stories
