The energy footprint of Bitcoin mining is off the charts. The already gargantuan energy consumption of the process to mint new coins of the cryptocurrency more-than doubled over the course of 2023 on the back of strong prices. The United States, one of the world’s biggest hubs for cryptocurrency mining, is at the eye of an intensifying storm about reigning in the problematic energy consumption and associated emissions of the cryptocurrency, but regulating it won’t be easy. By the end of last year, global energy consumption…