- The New Hampshire Senate Commerce Committee voted 4–2 to send a crypto mining deregulation bill for further study.
- House Bill 639 aims to block municipalities from restricting crypto mining activities and prohibit special taxes on digital assets.
- The bill includes creating a special blockchain court docket with a judge appointed by the governor.
- Public feedback on the bill surged, prompting two previous deadlocked committee votes on the measure.
- A recent report shows coal use in Bitcoin mining fell to 20% in 2024, while renewable energy use has grown steadily.
The New Hampshire Senate Commerce Committee voted 4–2 on Thursday to send House Bill 639 to an interim study for further review. The bill seeks to deregulate cryptocurrency mining by preventing local restrictions and tax measures targeting digital assets.
The committee had previously been deadlocked twice when deciding whether to advance or reject the bill. Since then, public input on the legislation increased significantly. The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Keith Ammon, aims to block municipalities from imposing rules on cryptocurrency mining such as limits on electricity use or noise.
If passed, the bill would also prohibit state and local governments from imposing taxes specific to digital assets. Additionally, it calls for establishing a dedicated blockchain docket within the state’s superior court. This docket would be overseen by a governor-appointed judge tasked with resolving crypto-related disputes. The full Senate is expected to consider the bill in 2026.
Senator Tara Reardon of Concord stated the bill generated the highest volume of emails she has ever received on a single bill. The effort to revise the legislation follows an earlier vote in May that returned the bill to committee for language improvements and to build more support.
Cryptocurrency mining uses computer power to validate transactions and secure proof-of-work blockchains, such as Bitcoin, providing miners with newly created coins as rewards. Concerns about mining’s energy use have persisted, but industry data shows progress in cleaner energy adoption.
A recent report from the MiCA Crypto Alliance and data firm Nodiens shows that coal’s share in Bitcoin mining dropped from 63% in 2011 to 20% in 2024. Over the same period, renewable energy use in mining has grown by an average of 5.8% per year.
Meanwhile, some U.S. states are pursuing taxes to offset mining’s energy consumption. For example, on October 2, New York State Senator Liz Krueger introduced a bill proposing a tiered excise tax on electricity used by crypto miners. The tax would exempt miners using up to 2.25 million kilowatt-hours annually and charge two cents per kilowatt-hour for usage between 2.26 million and 5 million kilowatt-hours.
For more details, see the full text of the bill here and the related news report.
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