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“As I’ve stated before, your continued threats to interfere with this transaction and intentionally hurt the people of Pend Oreille County are not well taken,” wrote former PUD general manager Colin Willenbrock to Merkle Standard CEO Steve Wood last October. A few days later he wrote again, “[T]he actions and statements by Allrise and its agents are undoubtedly targeted at harming the District and its ratepayers.”
Documents obtained through public records requests show that Willenbrock was responding to a series of threats (including fourteen emails between June 2021 and October 2022) from representatives of Allrise Capital and Beijing’s Bitmain. Merkle Standard CEO Steve Wood, COO Monty Stahl, and GM Todd Behrend each threatened our PUD as did their contracted energy consultant, Mr. Dana Zentz. These threats began the first day that Allrise took ownership of the former PNC paper mill with plans to build the largest bitcoin mining facility in the country. In November 2021, Willenbrock responded to Merkle GM Todd Behrend, “The continued threats of harm to Pend Oreille PUD in your letters is not well taken. The PUD has zero interest in that type of back-and-forth…. I will respond only briefly respond to a couple of specious points raised in your letter.” The following May, Willenbrock told Wood, “It’s unfortunate that Allrise seems more interested in pointing fingers and making unreasonable demands than in finding a mutually agreeable path forward…. Those sorts of statements will only position the parties toward conflict, and the deal toward defeat. I hope you will reconsider and refrain from making inflammatory statements going forward.” Most of the threats were in response to our PUD’s refusal to make its other customers subsidize power costs and take on the risks for their bitcoin mining operation. As Willenbrock responded to Wood last September, “The District and its customers cannot subsidize Cascade’s operations or mitigate its attendant risks.” In June Willenbrock again responded to Wood, "“Your reference to ‘all our past conversations up until the last turn of the new ESA’ is false and proves that Cascade signed the May 31 term sheet in bad faith and for the sole purpose of inducing the District to supply 26 MW to the Usk site in June.” He then emphasized the PUD had a responsibility “to ensure the District is always able to serve its general service ratepayers with the lowest-cost resource.” For more information about how our PUD protects its residential and business customers, see our previous report: What's at stake? Crypto plans in power negotiations would cost Citizens of POC millions, throttle local economy - PROTECT PEND OREILLE Our county deserves better-behaved business partners than Beijing’s Bitmain and Allrise Capital.
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