- A bill to ban the energy-intensive mining of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin was rejected by the Norwegian parliament on May 10.
- The communist Red Party, which drafted the bill, was supported by both the Green Party and the Socialist Left Party.
- The minority also attempted to introduce an electricity tax for energy-intensive cryptocurrency miners.
A bitcoin law aimed at eliminating energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining was defeated in Norway with a majority vote by the Norwegian Parliament on May 10, according to a translated report by the local newspaper E24.
The proposal emerged in early March this year from the Red Party (Rødt), which emerged in 2007 from a merger between the Red Electoral Alliance and the Communist Workers’ Party. The Red Party sees one of its main goals as achieving a classless society and has been supported by the Socialist Left Party and the Green Party.
“Of course we are disappointed with the majority here. In the future we will electrify large parts of society. If we don’t want to overwhelm Norway’s nature with wind power, we really have to prioritize what the energy should be used for,” said Sofie Marhaug from Rødt E24.
Marhaug went on to point to the need to prioritize energy use through standard central planning for far-left political parties. In fact, the Rødt party once attempted to charge bitcoin miners a fee on top of standard energy market prices.
Ordinary households, businesses and the public sector pay an electricity tax of US$2.51 per kilowatt hour, while industry has a reduced electricity tax of around US$0.07 per kilowatt hour.
“But it seems that the majority in the Storting will give priority to the market and let Norwegian electricity customers foot the bill,” Marhaug reportedly said.
The majority, on the other hand, reportedly said it was “fundamentally questionable to discriminate against data centers based on a politically defined societal benefit.”
Opponents of the ban discussed a lack of trust in the authorities, reportedly saying, “It is no coincidence that cryptocurrency saw a particular surge in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when trust in domestic and international banks and financial institutions on a low point was. ”
