New York Denies Air Quality Permits to Crypto Mining Facilities, Citing Sabin Center White Paper
Greenidge Generation power plant in Dresden, New York.Photo: Brian Kahn
June 30, New York Department of Environmental Protection reject Greenidge Generation LLC applies to renew the Title V air quality permit for the Greenidge Power Station. The facility, previously permitted as a “peaker” plant for natural gas flaring, recently added power generation to provide post-meter power to Greenidge’s proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining operations.
deny citing a white paper Published by Columbia Climate Institute Sabine Center for Climate Change Law March 2022. The paper argues that the New York executive has the authority to suspend permits that allow fossil-fuel power plants to provide behind-the-meter energy to proof-of-work cryptocurrency miners.As discussed in more detail in this article, proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining Requires a lot of energy consumption This results in a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions.researchers have latest estimate Bitcoin mining generates 65.4 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.other estimate Putting Bitcoin’s annualized carbon footprint at 72.05 MtCO2, comparable to Greece’s, a single Bitcoin transaction generates 805.77kg of CO2, equivalent to the emissions from 1,785,864 VISA transactions.
To power such operations, a trend There has been a transition from former coal-fired power plants to natural gas generation to provide off-meter power to mining facilities. One such facility is Greenidge Generation, which operated as a coal-fired power plant in the 1930s, then ceased operations in 2011, and then obtained a new license in 2016 to restart operations as a natural gas-fired power plant. When applying for the license in 2016, Greenidge said it would only supply power to the grid at “peak” capacity, but since 2020, Greenidge has started using the energy it generates to power on-site cryptocurrency mining operations.Greenwich’s greenhouse gas emissions due to this functional change A substantial increasewith Greenwich predict Its emissions will continue to increase in the future.As a result, Greenidge’s license renewal application has attracted a lot of attention state- and National.
Read the rest of the article on the Sabine Center website.
