Stronghold requests permission to burn tires for crypto mining in Pennsylvania
Stronghold Digital Mining, a Pennsylvanian crypto-mining company, is currently seeking approval to produce up to 15% of its energy using shredded tires, at its Panther Creek plant in Nesquehoning. Local environmental activists are preparing to oppose the initiative.
We are calling on state regulators and DEP with @earthjustice @pennfuture to deny a permitting request from Stronghold Digital Mining to burn tires as fuel for its bitcoin mining operations.
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According to local media, Stronghold filed an application with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in July. However, it was only last week when the information broke out in the public sphere. Officially, the company requested the use of so-called Tire Derived Fuel (TDF), citing the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval to use this kind of energy source at other industrial facilities in the state.
TDF has indeed been legal in the U.S. since 1991 and, in combination with other fuels, is being used at four plants in Pennsylvania. But local environment activists highlight the dubious status of the facilities, already consuming TDF and insist that the crypto mining facility shouldn't be granted such permission. Russell Zerbo, an advocate with Clean Air Council, said in the environment-focused West Pennsylvania radio show The Allegheny Front:
Charles McPhedran, an attorney with a public interest environmental law organization Earthjustice, said that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions skyrocketed after Stronghold took over the Panther Creek plant in 2021. The company didn’t shy away from using the coal to mine crypto, though consuming the supply of the waste coal, generously
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