New York Businesses Demand To Deny Permits For Crypto Mining

Permits For Crypto Mining Denied

New York State Governor, Kathleen Hochul has had a group of local businesses demanding her to deny permits for converting the city’s old fossil-fuel power plants into crypto mining centers. The request which came in letter form had signatories from a number of business organizations, as well as labor groups.

Recently, the impacts of crypto mining on the environment have continued to raise serious concerns amongst businesses and regulators alike. So it’s not entirely surprising, as this letter calls for an environmental assessment for Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining in New York state. In addition to that, Governor Hochul is also being urged to deny permits to convert the Fortistar North Tonawanda and the Greenidge Generating Station power plants into crypto mining centers:

The agitations might not be unfounded, however. Firstly, Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining uses a great deal of energy to power the computers needed in doing business. And of course, if this kind of activity is allowed to continue growing in New York, then it would totally be undermining New York’s climate goals, as established under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Also confirming their beliefs, the businesses quoted the Department of Environmental Conservation’s commissioner, Basil Seggos saying that Greenidge is not compliant with New York’s climate law.

On September 27, TheCoinrise reported on how miners are looking towards going nuclear as the search for clean energy continues to intensify. This is because mining has a reputation for carrying hefty carbon emissions, hence the many reports about its negative impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, going to the research of the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), Bitcoin’s energy consumption will remain below 0.5% of the global total over the next 10 years.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Should Governor Hochul truly deny those permits or allow the Fortistar North Tonawanda and the Greenidge Generating Station power plants to be converted to mining facilities?