> I suspect this has more to do with Chinese internal politics ... than anything to do with the environment. It's both. From the article: In terms of helping

> I suspect this has more to do with Chinese internal politics ... than anything to do with the environment. It's both. From the article: In terms of helping China meet its goals of reducing carbon emissions, Inner Mongolia has not had a good track record. It failed to meet China’s energy-saving target in 2019. The central government criticized Inner Mongolia for its “serious problems with energy conservation,” according to People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party. Chinese internal politics also include environmental regulations. If the government of Inner Mongolia doesn't want to exceed the energy consumption limit again, they need to make cuts somewhere. Now the specific choice of banning cryptominers is a matter of Inner Mongolian internal politics. But it's unsurprising that they'd prefer local businesses over some bitcoin miners who could easily move their operation to a different province (as many of the examples in the article did.)