The lower house of the New York State Assembly voted in favor of a bill designed to freeze current levels of carbon emissions from cryptocurrency mining.

The document provides a two-year moratorium on issuing new permits for cryptocurrency production using electricity generated from hydrocarbon sources. Businesses operating under this program will not be able to expand their operations.

The law also requires the Department of Environmental Protection to produce a report on the environmental impact of mining in the state. The work needs to be completed within a year, and lawmakers should be given time to act before the restrictions end.

Anna Kelles, the Democratic MP who initiated the bill, explained that it does not ban cryptocurrency mining, but that it affects a limited number of energy facilities.

“This only applies to power plants, of which there are about 30 outside the city and about 19 in the south,” Kelles said during the discussion.

Republican Robert Smallen described the bill as “anti-technology” and “only masquerading as environmental protection”. He added that the decision would send the wrong signal to New York’s financial services sector in terms of digital adoption.

According to Kelles, the proposed measures will not interfere with innovations in the space, as they will not affect other aspects of the crypto industry, such as asset trading.

Against the background of the development of mining in the United States, entrepreneurs used the excess electricity in the state to organize the production of cryptocurrency “up to the meter” directly at power stations.

The Greenidge Belt in Dresden was one such attempt. In 2021, a hybrid power plant located on the shores of Seneca (one of the Finger lakes) faced negative environmental impact charges.

In July of the same year, the company announced plans to expand its mining business, but already on site in South Carolina. The investment to be made in the project will be 264 million dollars.

In April 2022, the New York Supreme Court dismissed environmentalists’ claims against the power plant.

Republican MP Philip Palmesano spoke in a debate about Greenidge’s contribution to the economy in terms of taxes and employment.

Kelles said the agro-tourism industry in the Finger region, which has 60,000 employees, points to the negative effects of water and air pollution as well as noise from the business.

“How many jobs are we creating for these emissions, how many are we losing? “We have to think about the balance,” he said.

95 members of the Assembly voted in favor of the law, while 52 deputies voted against it. A similar document is under review by the Senate.

Recall that in February 2022, New York gubernatorial candidate Juman Williams called on current state officials to ban the mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the Proof of Work algorithm.