A waste coal-burning, crypto-mining pirate ship sets sail

Audio By Carbonatix

KENNERDELL, Pa. — Homebound for several years while recovering from a catastrophic illness, Bill Spence had plenty of time to do what he does: come up with business ideas. The plant he had bought was in trouble. It was competing with cheap natural gas on the power grid and losing — endangering the 35 jobs at Scrubgrass Generating Station along with the effort to clean up millions of tons of leaching coal waste left behind by mining companies over the course of decades. The plant couldn’t just rely on the grid for revenue anymore. One day in late 2017, he asked two visiting plant managers “Do you know what a Bitcoin is?”