A City in New York Blocks Mining Operations for Cryptocurrency to Preserve Energy

Mining expeditions have been becoming fewer and farther between lately, which has been largely due to the electricity spent for mining efforts that had not been properly evaluated. There are many countries opting out of mining entirely, and the city of Salamanca is following that trend.

Salamanca is located in New York, and they have recently frozen all effort by miners to continue mining within the city limits. Based on their decision, the city has stated that this ban will prevent miners in the area from “using up all the residents’ power and effectively make all of them get a price increase on their utility bills.”

This decision was the result of a vote by the Common Council of Salamanca, who unanimously voted in favor of Local Law No. 2. This new law states that there is now a “moratorium on commercial cryptocurrency mining operations in the city,” according to a report by Salamanca Press. The news outlet described the law, saying “A moratorium would temporarily stop applications or proceedings, or the issuance of approvals or permits, for cryptocurrency mining operations in the ‘electric service area’ of the city of Salamanca.”

The whole reason for establishing this law is because the city needs to have “the opportunity to consider zoning and land use laws and municipal electric department regulations before commercial cryptocurrency mining operations result in irreversible change to the character and direction of the city.” To give the rest of the community the opportunity the opportunity to weigh in, there is a public hearing planned for September 12th, opening the discussion on the new regulation.

Timothy Flanigan, a council member that is on the Board of Public Utilities, said that his department presently lacks the necessary regulations that would help to “properly deal with cryptocurrency operations.” With so much electricity required for operation, this delay would help the city to prepare for this surge, but without a risk to the local energy supply.

New York is already a largely expensive area to live in, and the inexpensive cost of electricity for residents is a necessity for their wellbeing.

On this note, Flanigan said, “The thing that this [moratorium] will do is devoid people of using up all the residents’ power and effectively make all of them get a price increase on their utility bills because somebody else is using up all the cheap power.”

Salamanca is not the only city in the United States to put up some roadblocks for cryptocurrency. One power district for Chelan County, which is located in Washington, established an emergency freeze on “new high-density load hookups,” in March. They said that the local staff needed time to figure out the best way to meet the electricity demands of miners, which greatly exceeded the current needs of the city.

Plattsburgh, located in New York, established a similar law in March as well, simply stopping mining operations from taking place entirely. Massena, another city located within upstate New York, opted to charge miners a higher rate for their energy costs, rather than banning them all together, in July,

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