A newly introduced bill in the Michigan legislature threatens to pump the brakes on the expansion of the cryptocurrency mining industry within the state. House Bill 5882 aims to grant local municipalities explicit authority to impose moratoriums on the construction of both cryptocurrency mining facilities and large-scale data centers. The legislation was introduced last month by State Representatives Miller, Dievendorf, and Paiz, and has since been referred to the Committee on Government Operations.
Cracking down on mining
The bill aims to regulate energy-intensive computing facilities by giving local units of government more power over zoning ordinance amendments and construction approvals. Local communities have increasingly raised concerns regarding energy consumption, noise pollution, and strain on local electrical grids. According to crypto policy tracking account Bitcoin Laws on X (formerly Twitter), the legislation essentially provides “a roadmap and checklist for local governments wanting to block construction.” HB 5882 empowers towns and counties to evaluate the environmental and infrastructural impacts of commercial crypto miners before allowing them to break ground. If passed, the legislation could significantly slow down the influx of new mining operations in Michigan. Environmentally focused lawmakers (“activist legislatures”) are increasingly treating AI data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities as the exact same thing when writing restrictive laws. Instead of just targeting crypto, they are grouping the two industries together to block or pause their construction.
