>This is very different to electricity, because physical resources are consumed that the consumer did not ask for or need

This entire article is glossing over the fact that the vast majority of electricity produced is from converting a physical resource into the electricity being wasted. Excessive wasteful packaging is stupid, and so is using excessive amounts of power to make Dunning-Krugerrands.

You could certainly place your miners near energy sources such as hydro, solar, or geothermal, but that doesn't change the fact that Bitcoin mining is, by definition, a measure of wasted electricity.