In Brief:
- New York state governor Kathy Hochul has been urged by a group of local companies to deny business permits to bitcoin miners.
- The request comes in form of a letter co-signed by organizations, businesses, and labor groups.
- The letter highly demands Hochul’s administration deny the Title V air permits for the Greenidge Generating Station and the Fortistar North Tonawanda.
The governor of New York state, Kathy Hochul has been urged by a group of local companies to deny the Bitcoin Mining business permits. The request comes in the form of a letter, which is co-signed by organizations, businesses, and labor groups.
The letter urges the governor “to issue a statewide moratorium on Proof-of-Work (PoW) cryptocurrency mining until a thorough statewide Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) is conducted, and to deny the permits for the Greenidge Generating Station and the Fortistar North Tonawanda Facility.”
“Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining uses enormous amounts of energy to power the computers needed to conduct business- should this activity expand in New York, it could drastically undermine New York’s climate goals established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
The proposal highlights data mining operations using warehouses full of computers in New York siphoning electricity from New York’s grid can jeopardize the state’s progress on meeting mandates for reducing greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions.
The letter highly demands Hochul’s administration deny the Title V air permits for the Greenidge Generating Station and the Fortistar North Tonawanda.
They also cited state Commissioner Basil Seggos of the department of Environmental Conservation and said, “Greenidge has not shown compliance with New York’s climate law”.
The crypto firms are working on environmentally friendly mining operations and are investing in sustainable projects. In October, El Salvador also began bitcoin mining using volcanic energy and became the first crypto project to use Volcanic resources.
