(Texas Observer) – Public officials at all levels are propping up a Texas Bitcoin mining boom that’s threatening water and energy systems while afflicting locals with noise pollution.

Around May 2021, cryptominers migrated en masse to Texas for its cheap power and deregulated power grid after China outlawed Bitcoin mining. Governor Greg Abbott declared Texas “open for crypto business” and promised to create a new Bitcoin “Mecca.” Since then, cryptomines like Riot’s—consisting of large warehouses or arrays of Conex-style containers filled with stacks of what look like 1980s-era stereo systems laboring day and night at crypto’s contrived random numbers game—have proliferated mostly in remote, unincorporated areas, where they benefit from largely unscrutinized, sweetheart tax deals and sparse regulations. (Read More)