Environmentalists and New York City Council member Anna Kelles urged Governor Katie Hokul to revoke the Greenidge Generation’s mining permit. Reported by CoinDesk.

Kelles is the initiator of a bill that imposes a two-year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining using electricity generated from carbon sources. At the end of April, the document was supported in the lower house of the State Legislature, and on June 3, in the Senate. It will enter into force after it is signed by the governor.

The initiative ensures that current levels of carbon emissions from mining are frozen. Operating companies or those in the process of obtaining permission to issue digital assets will continue to operate. Authorities plan to study the potential environmental impact of Proof-of-Work mining over a two-year period.

According to the publication, during the press conference, environmentalists also appealed to Hokul with a request to refuse a work permit for blockchain hosting provider Digihost Technologies.

In 2021, the company signed an agreement with bitcoin miner Bit Digital to provide facilities for the storage and operation of 20 MW of cryptocurrency mining equipment.

In May 2022, Bit Digital reported that it had shut down approximately 1,580 devices hosted in New York State. According to the statement, Digihost Technology expressed the need to obtain additional approvals from the authorities.

At the time of writing, representatives of the hosting provider did not comment on the demands of environmentalists, unlike Greenidge Generation. In a press release, the company stressed that the document does not apply to its activities:

“The bill specifies the text directly and [Келлес в комментарии WSJ] confirmed that the law would not apply to Greenidge operations. […] The application for renewal was filed on March 5, 2021, and was accepted by the New York State Department of Environmental Protection in 2021. Therefore, this bill will not affect the Greenidge facility.

The mining company has faced allegations of environmental violations before. In April 2022, the state Supreme Court rejected a motion to halt construction of the Greenidge Generation facilities near Seneca Lake, not seeing any adverse environmental impact.

Recall that Vitalik Buterin, general partner of Castle Island Ventures Nick Carter, and other community members criticized the moratorium on bitcoin mining in New York.