Two bills supporting Bitcoin mining passed in Texas, while one was stopped.

Texas lawmakers are supporting bitcoin mining with two bills passed in the latest legislative session. These bills show support for the industry, and one of them introduces tax exemptions from companies that use otherwise wasted gas, including data centers. The other bill requires miners with an energy capacity larger than 75 megawatts to register with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Texas as large loads operators, which then shares their data with the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator. The third bill, SB 1751, which would have capped the industry’s participation in cost-saving demand-response programs, was stopped at the committee stage. Texas is one of the largest bitcoin mining hubs in the world due to cheap energy and friendly regulators. Other states, such as Arkansas and Montana, have passed legislation protecting mining. Meanwhile, New York imposed a two-year moratorium on new fossil fuel-based bitcoin mines, and Oregon is currently considering legislation that would require data centers, including miners, to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.