Republican Sen. Bryan King from Green Forest wants to repeal a law he voted for.
Act 851 passed by wide margins in both the Arkansas House and Senate, after virtually no debate or pushback. The law greatly loosens regulations on crypto mines, large groups of computers tasked with harvesting cryptocurrency. Some residents who live near crypto mines say the fans needed to keep the computers cool are unbearably loud.
King says he is not against crypto mines, but says they don't need to be kept safe from regulations.
“We don’t need to give these extra protections to one sliver of an industry,” he said explaining that under the new law crypto mines will be less regulated than many farms.
On top of that, King says crypto mines use a lot of energy.
“The amount of energy it uses is tremendous compared to the amount of jobs it employs,” he says.
King says this is part of a larger pattern with the legislature passing too many bills too quickly with little discussion or debate.
At the end of the session this year, the Arkansas Legislature “batched” or voted on a handful of bills at once. King said this can be used to ram through “controversial bills.” He says he “didn't catch” Act 851, because it was passed during an over ten-hour day in the Senate. King wanted the legislature to consider creating a more “informed process” of bill creation.
Crypto mines have been built in Greenbrier. Plans to build a mine in Vilonia were halted by city planning officials last month.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly said there is a crypto mine in Harrison Arkansas. The crypto mining company withdrew its application.
