Utah just rolled out the red carpet for one of the most exploitative industries in America.
In the waning hours of its legislative session, Utah gave the unregulated and environmentally destructive crypto industry free reign with the passage of HB230, Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments. The newly passed legislation enshrines the so-called “right” to mine crypto, self-custody digital assets, run blockchain nodes and stake tokens with minimal interference or oversight.
Make no mistake — this is not innovation. It will harm every Utahn who pays a power bill, who cares about clean air and water, or who believes public money should serve the public good.
This bill was written to give the crypto industry cover from local zoning laws, noise ordinances, public scrutiny and any kind of oversight. This gives this industry the ability to pollute our air, siphon our waters and feast on ratepayer-funded electricity without any local channels of recourse.
The bill also waives requirements for these digital operations to get money transmitter licenses, which are required for other businesses that are engaging in electronic transfers. These licenses usually require a review of financial audits from the applying company. It gives so-called “miners” — the companies behind power-hungry warehouses of computers solving fake math problems in exchange for digital coins — the “right” to make a fortune while the rest of us pay the price. And pay the price we will.
Proof-of-work cryptomining, the kind this bill enables, already consumes an estimated 2.3% of the entire U.S. electricity supply. That’s more than entire countries use, and for Utah, that means higher electricity rates for families and small businesses, higher strain on the power grid, increased fossil fuel emissions, and more pollution.
In effect, HB230 creates state-sanctioned “opportunity zones” for cryptominers, giving them favored access to public resources, while shielding them from the kind of basic accountability other industries face. Importantly, the bill includes no provisions for managing water usage — a glaring omission in a drought-prone state where every drop counts.
In Utah, where drought conditions are only expected to worsen in the years to come due to climate change, cryptomining’s excessive water consumption adds insult to injury. These facilities can use as much water as 300,000 households per year to keep their machines from overheating. That’s not progress. That’s abuse of an essential and scarce shared public resource.
And then there’s the noise. If you’ve never lived near a cryptomine, imagine a semi-truck engine running outside your window, 24/7. And under this law, local governments can’t stop them — even if residents are losing sleep or being driven away from their homes by the nonstop hum.
The cryptomining industry wants us to believe they’re ushering in the future. But the truth is, they’re dragging us backwards — toward more pollution, more waste, more corporate greed. Most Americans don’t use crypto, and many don’t even understand it. Yet our power bills, our water and our zoning laws are being usurped to prop it up.
If lawmakers had bothered to look around, they’d see that other states have already learned this lesson the hard way. Arkansas passed a nearly identical bill last year. Chaos ensued. Noise complaints flooded in. Utility costs spiked. Lawmakers were forced to walk it back, and even co-sponsors admitted they were misled.
Utah should expect no different. Lawmakers and the crypto industry are celebrating the passage of this bill as a bipartisan win that will position the state to lead. But it’s a corporate giveaway, plain and simple. The crypto industry doesn’t need special protections. It needs real oversight — especially in states like ours, where precious natural resources and strong local governance are vital to our quality of life.
The crypto industry is massive and extremely well-resourced, but we’re fighting back. The National Coalition Against Cryptomining is already working in 18 states to stop this wave of deregulation. We’re building a bipartisan movement of everyday people — rural and urban, Republican and Democrat — who are sick of watching corporations upend our quality of life while our leaders cheer them on.
We need our elected officials to choose the people they serve over a financial fantasy and the deep-pocketed lobby behind it. We won’t stop fighting until our public funds, our natural resources and our communities are no longer for sale.
Opinion: HB230 prioritizes the crypto industry over the public’s wellbeing – Deseret News
