Senate Bill Targets Crypto Mining with Emissions Penalties

A U.S. Senate proposal, known as the Clean Cloud Act, could significantly impact crypto mining and AI infrastructure operations in the country.

The bill, introduced by Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, aims to impose emissions limits and financial penalties on data centers that exceed federally set environmental benchmarks.

Crypto miners are already pivoting toward AI infrastructure, leveraging their high-performance computing (HPC) setups to offset declining crypto revenues. Major mining firms like Galaxy, CoreScientific, and Terawulf are integrating AI services into their operations.

Under the proposed legislation, the EPA would set an emissions performance standard for facilities with over 100 kilowatts of installed IT capacity. These standards would be regionally based and require an 11% annual emissions reduction.