U.s. Senator Ted Cruz believes that his state should be using natural gas to mine Bitcoin (BTC) instead of flaring it.

Speaking during Friday's Texas Blockchain Summit, Senator Cruz asserted that Bitcoin mining can be used to monetize free energy created through oil and gas extraction rather than burning information technology, arguing that there is "enormous opportunity for Bitcoin [...] to capture that gas instead of wasting information technology."

According to a transcription of the talk shared to social media past Coin Metrics founder Nic Carter, Cruz noted that half of the natural gas flared in the country is currently being burned in West Texas. "Information technology's being wasted because in that location is no transmission equipment to get that natural gas where information technology could be used the manner natural gas would ordinarily be employed," he added.

"Utilize that power to mine Bitcoin. Part of the dazzler of that is the instant you're doing it y'all're helping the environment enormously considering rather than flaring the natural gas yous're putting it to productive apply."

Cruz emphasized the chapters for Bitcoin mining to exist mobilized reflexively in response to fluctuating energy supply, stating that energy could be immediately returned to the grid in the event suddenly ability outage or shortage.

"In five years, I wait to meet a dramatically unlike terrain, with Bitcoin mining playing a significant role in strengthening and hardening the resilience of the grid," he added.

Cruz noted that Bitcoin tin can be used to capture unutilized energy across the world, arguing, "There are a lot of places on Earth where the sun shines a lot and the wind blows a lot, just there aren't any power lines, and information technology's non economically feasible to use that energy."

"The beauty of Bitcoin mining is that if you tin connect to the net, yous tin can use that energy and derive value from those renewables in a manner that would exist impossible otherwise."

Cruz is non lone in believing Bitcoin mining could offering an efficient means to capture renewable energy, with Republic of el salvador recently announcing plans for a state-backed Bitcoin mining project powered by renewables.

Related: Bitcoin's power consumption this twelvemonth has already surpassed all of 2022'due south

Bitcoin mining has become a fundamental industry for the state of Texas following Communist china's May crackdown on industrial Bitcoin mining firms.

Many miners turned to Texas for its inexpensive and abundant renewables, while others looked to Kazakhstan, Norway and Canada to access inexpensive dark-green electricity.