The New York State Assembly passed a bill to ban Bitcoin mining by companies that don’t use renewable energy sources.
A two-year moratorium on new BTC mining facilities that use carbon fuel to power their operations was passed by the New York State Assembly. This was announced on Twitter by the bill’s initiator, Anna Kelles.
The ban on the operation of mining farms, which don’t use “green” electricity, will affect new organizations. The bill would also make it possible to reject permit renewal requests from existing cryptocurrency miners based on PoW algorithms, if they are unwilling to increase the amount of renewable sources in the overall balance of energy consumed.
The bill received the necessary support on the ballot with 95 votes in favor. Blockchain Association, a crypto industry advocacy group that urged New Yorkers to oppose such restrictions, also failed to influence the vote’s outcome. Anna Kelles’ initiative will now go to a vote in the State Senate and, if successful, Governor Kathy Hochul will make the final decision.
The bill would require the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prepare an environmental impact report to determine the amount of “green” energy in Bitcoin mining companies’ overall consumption balance, as well as evaluate carbon emissions from mining operations and their effect on public health.
