Stronghold Digital Company is seeking approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for using Tire Derived Fuel to generate energy for cryptocurrency mining at its industrial facilities.
Stronghold Digital Mining, a crypto-mining company based in Pennsylvania, requests permission to generate up to 15 percent of its electricity at its Panther Creek plant in Nesquehoning using shredded tires. Local environmentalists are planning opposition to the initiative.
Stronghold applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in July. However, the information became public the previous week.
Officially, the company requested the use of so-called Tire Derived Fuel (TDF), citing the sanction of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use this type of energy source at other industrial facilities in the state.
TDF has been permitted in the United States since 1991, and four plants in Pennsylvania use it in combination with other fuels. However, local environment activists emphasize the questionable status of the facilities, which are already consuming TDF, and insist that such permission should not be granted to the crypto mining facility.
Russell Zerbo, an advocate for Clean Air Council, stated on the environment-focused radio program The Allegheny Front in West Pennsylvania:
“Because [Panther Creek] uses the electricity it produces to generate cryptocurrency, rather than selling that electricity to the energy grid, the plant should be completely re-permitted as a solid waste incinerator that would be subject to increased air pollution monitoring requirements.”
Charles McPhedran, an attorney with the public interest environmental law organization Earthjustice, stated that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions skyrocketed following Stronghold’s 2021 acquisition of the Panther Creek facility.
Although waste coal was abundant in Pennsylvania, the company continued using it to mine cryptocurrency.
Some estimates indicate that 2 billion cubic yards of refuse coal continue to pollute the environment across the state’s territory.
Stronghold recently disclosed its financial results for Q2 2023. It mined 626 Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2023, which is 43% more than it mined during the fourth quarter of 2022 and represents 1% sequential growth compared to the first quarter of 2023, despite the Bitcoin network hash rate increasing by 39% and 22% during the same periods. The company generated $18.2 million in revenue and $11.7 million in net loss.
