New York State to ban mining company Greenidge

According to the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC. – ed.), Greenidge is preparing to revoke the license of the cryptocurrency mining company Greenidge. The reason was the state’s climate commitments.

The company is facing a difficult trial on the bitcoin mining license. We are confident that it won’t be an easy battle,

said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.

According to Seggos, the Department of the Environment will have to review Greenidge’s bitcoin mining permit applications. In this regard, we are talking about a licensed coal-fired power plant of a company. The fact is that the power plant, located in Dresden, in the northern part of New York, redirected its power to cryptocurrency mining.

In 2016, Greenidge received the relevant papers from the supervisory authority for cryptocurrency mining, but there were stipulated conditions for complying with carbon emission standards. In 2022, the company wanted to renew its mining permit and filed papers in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

In documents submitted in March 2021, Greenidge stipulates a carbon footprint of 641,000 tons per year, which is permitted by law. These standards were set by DEC and according to the calculations were equal to the annual electricity consumption of 116,000 residential buildings.

This year, DEC does not intend to renew this license, as, according to the Department, this could set a bad example for other mining companies and negatively affect environmental pollution.

Environmentalists believe that if mining companies continue to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at this rate, then in the end the state will not be able to meet its climate obligations to the United States. This Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was signed by the state in 2019 and implies 70% of electricity generation from “clean” sources by 2030 and 100% by 2040. Despite Greenidge’s claims of full compliance with technical norms, the opinion of ecologists, environmental activists and residents of the state has led to a tightening of regulation of the mining process.

Already in March 2022, the New York State Environmental Conservation Committee approved a bill to stop the mining of cryptocurrencies on the Proof-of-Work algorithm in the state for up to two years.