Re: Opposition to HB 4510-4513 — Sierra Club Members and Supporters in Michigan

Summary

Testimony in opposition to HB 4510-4513 from Tim Minotas, Legislative and Political Director of Sierra Club Michigan, who writes on behalf of 150,000 Sierra Club members and supporters in Michigan. The testimony states that HB 4510 would allow Michigan's public pension systems to invest in cryptocurrency through exchange-traded products without safeguards, and that HB 4511, a so-called "Crypto Bill of Rights," could strip local and state authorities of the power to regulate crypto mining or data centers. It says HB 4512 proposes crypto mining at abandoned oil and gas wells, and that the HB 4513 bill offers tax incentives without clawbacks. It urges the committee to significantly amend or reject the bills.

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Re: Opposition to HB 4510-4513


On behalf of our 150,000 Sierra Club members and supporters in Michigan, I am writing in opposition to HB
4510-4513. Cryptocurrency can feel abstract and complicated—only about one to two percent of Americans
actually use it for transactions, but the impacts of cryptocurrency mining are very real. Across the country, it’s
driving up energy costs, straining water supplies, and disrupting rural communities. Michigan now faces a
choice: whether to open the door wider to crypto mining or to protect our communities, ratepayers, and natural
resources first.

What Crypto Mining Is and Why It Matters
Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is created through a process called “mining.” Miners compete to solve complex
math problems using massive banks of computers that run nonstop, 24 hours a day. Every 10 minutes or so,
one miner somewhere in the world wins a small amount of Bitcoin—and then the race starts all over again.

The problem is that race consumes staggering amounts of energy. Estimates show Bitcoin mining alone now
uses as much electricity as some mid-sized countries, about 2-3% of total U.S. energy consumption. That’s
roughly the equivalent of having added an additional U.S. state to the grid over just the last three years. This
has huge implications for the electric grid as a whole. That’s power that could otherwise support homes,
businesses, or clean industries right here in Michigan.

Real Impacts on Communities
Crypto mining doesn’t happen in cyberspace; it happens in large, warehouse-sized facilities filled with
thousands of computers and cooling systems. These operations offer very few long-term jobs, but they bring
major downsides:

    •   Higher electric bills for everyone else on the grid, as miners drive up demand and strain local
        infrastructure. By some estimates, crypto mining is costing ratepayers $1 billion more each year.1
    •   Crypto mining does not drive renewable energy transformation. Proponents claim that mining is
        spurring new renewable development and stabilizing the grid. But clean energy allocated to
        cryptocurrency mining doesn’t actually do anything to decarbonize the grid, and there are few mining
        facilities that are building renewables to even power their own operations, let alone send to the grid.2
    •   Huge water consumption for cooling, on the scale of hundreds of thousands of households per year
        nationwide.3




1
  Tong, T., Hoog, B., Chuang, J., & Luo, T. (2023, September 27). The key takeaways from our PJM, MISO and ERCOT seasonal
outlook webinars. Wood Mackenzie. November 5, 2025, https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/the-key-takeaways-from-our-pjm-
miso-and-ercot-seasonal-outlook-webinars/
2
  DeRoche, M., Fisher, J., Thorpe, N., & Wachspress, M. (2022, September). The Energy Bomb: How Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrency
Mining Worsens the Climate Crisis and Harms Communities Now. https://earthjustice.org/wp-
content/uploads/energy_bomb_bitcoin_white_paper_101322.pdf
3
  de Vries, A. (2024). Bitcoin’s growing water footprint. Cell Reports Sustainability, 1(1), 100004.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2023.100004
    •    Constant noise pollution from industrial cooling fans, which can be heard hundreds of feet away,
         disrupting nearby homes and wildlife.4
    •    They do not create jobs. Cryptocurrency has been touted as a job creator by industry proponents, but
         reality has proven otherwise. The facilities house computers and equipment, not offices. A crypto mine
         in Rockdale, Texas, that promised to create over 300 jobs created only 14 before being scaled back.
         This is just one example of many!5

Crypto miners tend to target rural and low-cost energy areas, often in small towns near substations or water
sources—exactly the kinds of communities that make up much of Michigan.

What the Bills Do, and What They Don’t
HB 4510 would allow Michigan’s public pension systems to invest in cryptocurrency through exchange-traded
products. The problem is, it does so without any safeguards. There are no risk caps, no climate or
environmental due diligence, and no transparency requirements. That means our public funds, retirement
funds, could be exposed to a highly volatile, unregulated market that also contributes to real-world
environmental harm.

HB 4511 establishes a so-called “Crypto Bill of Rights,” designed to protect the right to own and use
cryptocurrency. But the language goes much further; it could strip local and state authorities of the power to
regulate crypto mining or data centers. In practice, that could prevent local governments from enforcing noise
limits, zoning restrictions, or water-use rules that communities rely on to protect themselves. It shields crypto
activity from regulation without establishing any basic standards.

HB 4512 proposes to let crypto mining take place at abandoned oil and gas wells, claiming it would use vented
methane for energy. But the reality is, this bill incentivizes and prioritizes fossil fuel extraction first, over actually
capping the well and stopping any methane leakage. There are no requirements for verifying methane
reductions, and no protections for neighbors from noise, light, or truck traffic. In other states, similar projects
have been little more than a rebranding of fossil fuel extraction, without the environmental oversight. It also
allows information be confidential and not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

HB 4513 The bill offers tax incentives for those same projects but includes no clawbacks if companies violate
the rules. With HB 4512, the bill’s design needs to protect taxpayers with stronger bonding requirements and
ensure that any new use doesn’t re-create “orphan” liabilities or other environmental hazards under a different
guise and ultimately leaving liability up to the taxpayers.

Lessons from Other States
Michigan isn’t the first state to wrestle with these issues. In Arkansas, lawmakers initially passed a pro-crypto
bill, only to discover the flood of noise, energy strain, and community backlash that followed. Within a year, the
same legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike, reversed course and passed new restrictions.6 Granbury,
Texas, where the local Republican Party is supporting residents in their fight against a crypto company. New
York has gone further, enacting a moratorium on certain crypto mining projects to study their environmental
impacts. Across the country, from Appalachia to Texas, communities are uniting in a bipartisan grassroots
movement to demand transparency, accountability, and local control.



4
  DeRoche, M., Fisher, J., Thorpe, N., & Wachspress, M. (2022, September). The Energy Bomb: How Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrency
Mining Worsens the Climate Crisis and Harms Communities Now. https://earthjustice.org/wp-
content/uploads/energy_bomb_bitcoin_white_paper_101322.pdf
5
  Deroche, M., & Elkin, J. (2025, February 21). How much do we subsidize cryptocurrency mining’s electricity use? No one knows.
Earthjustice. November 5, 2025, https://earthjustice.org/experts/mandy-deroche/how-much-do-we-subsidize-cryptocurrency-minings-
electricity-use-no-one-knows
6
  Earley, N. (2024, May 4). Sanders signs bills to require crypto mining permits, restore local authority to issue regulations: Arkansas
Democrat gazette. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/03/sanders-signs-bills-to-
require-crypto-mining/
The Sierra Club is neither opposed to nor supportive of cryptocurrency as a concept —our concerns lie with
the highly energy- and water-intensive practice, its impact on ratepayers, our grid, clean energy goals, and the
lack of transparency and accountability these bills provide.

In Conclusion
Crypto mining might sound like a high-tech innovation, but its costs are paid in Michigan electricity bills,
Michigan water, and a lack of state and local oversight. These bills, as written, open the door to unchecked
mining while removing the very protections communities need.

I urge this committee to either significantly amend these bills or reject them until there are clear, enforceable
safeguards for our ratepayers, environment, and local governments. Michigan should lead with caution, not
follow other states down a costly path of regret.




Tim Minotas
Legislative and Political Director
Sierra Club Michigan


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