Does the state Senate support repowering and extending the life of dying fossil fuel power plants for private industry gain?
That is ultimately the question at the heart of legislation (S.6486D/A.7389C) that establishes a two-year pause on the issuance of air permits for fossil fuel power plants that are used for cryptocurrency mining operations and directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a one-year environmental review.
This bill is critical to pass now if the Legislature is serious about the the climate law it passed three years ago. But our state’s climate goals stand to be jeopardized by cryptocurrency miners using old fossil fuel power plants generating hundreds of megawatts of new electricity for their own use and profit.
Some forms of cryptocurrency are disastrous for our climate due to the inordinate amount of energy they require. In proof-of-work authentication, complex algorithms are assigned to each transaction and mega computers compete to solve them. The first to do so authenticates the transaction and wins currency for their effort; the person or company with the most computational power wins the most currency.
Consequently, proof-of-work crypto mining consumes as much energy as entire countries. If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank in the top 30 countries of energy users worldwide — between Norway and Argentina.
Crypto miners need so much energy that they are resurrecting and extending the life of old, inefficient, fossil-fueled power plants to operate night and day to mine cryptocurrency, resulting in significant greenhouse gas emissions and the resurgence of dire environmental pollution and injustice consequences.
Now that S.6486D/A.7389C has passed the Assembly, the question goes to the Senate. Should New York allow these operations that pollute our communities, despite our climate mandates, for private gain? If that answer is no, as it should be, then it is critical for Senate Majority Leader Stewart Cousins to bring this bill to a vote before session ends.
Liz Moran is the New York policy advocate for Earthjustice.