The American company Diversified Energy has found itself at the center of a scandal related to environmental oversight due to its activities in cryptocurrency mining at the Longhorn Pad A site in Elk County, Pennsylvania. After completing operations, the company left uncapped wells, raising concerns among regulators and environmental activists.
This is reported by Business • Media
According to information published in an article by Erie Times-News, the company began using an abandoned location in 2022 to power generators that supplied energy to computers for cryptocurrency mining. However, at the time of launch, Diversified Energy did not have an air emissions permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Environmental Risks and Violations
The emissions permit was granted only in December 2023, but an inspection in March 2025 revealed that the equipment had already been dismantled, and the site was left unattended. DEP representatives noted the absence of generators and production facilities, which led to an official warning about violations regarding the abandonment of wells without proper capping.
Sources report that the company denied fully abandoning the site, emphasizing that it is considering the possibility of resuming extraction. However, environmental activists argue that Diversified Energy violated its 2021 commitments, under which the company was supposed to cap the Longhorn A well and 13 others after their operation ended.
“The only thing we know is that everything looks abandoned. The generators and tanks were removed without any warning,” said local oversight representative P.J. Piccirillo.
Financial and Environmental Consequences
Critics of Diversified Energy’s business model emphasize that the company acquires outdated, low-yield wells without clear plans for their closure. Legislators point out that closing a single well can exceed $100,000, and Pennsylvania already has over 350,000 abandoned wells, which pose a serious environmental risk.
In 2022, one report described the company’s approach as “a model designed for failure in Appalachia,” warning that taxpayers may ultimately cover the cleanup costs. Despite a recent agreement in which Diversified committed to closing 2,600 wells by 2034, the company remains under scrutiny, including oversight from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
It is worth noting that experts from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimated the annual electricity consumption of Bitcoin miners at 0.54% of the world’s resource usage.