Impacted FLX Residents Make Voices Heard in State Court Hearing Against Cryptominer Greenidge Generation

YATES COUNTY, NY (10/29/2024) (readMedia)-- On Tuesday, Earthjustice will provide oral argument in New York State Supreme Court opposing climate-killing cryptominer Greenidge Generation's latest effort to continue mining Bitcoin by burning fracked gas on Seneca Lake. In August, Greenidge filed the lawsuit (Index No. 2024-5221) challenging the Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) denial of its Title V Air Permit renewal application. In September, Earthjustice won a motion to intervene on behalf of Seneca Lake Guardian, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, and Sierra Club. These groups fighting to protect the upstate communities they serve from the harmful impacts of the Greenidge polluting operation will have the opportunity to make their voices heard at the state court hearing.

Mandy DeRoche, a deputy managing attorney in the Clean Energy Program at Earthjustice, will be available for interviews following the hearing.

Not only is Greenidge harming the surrounding communities, it is also further delaying New York from meeting its vital climate goals under New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Earthjustice will argue that Greenidge Generation LLC is operating in violation of the CLCPA and their air permit should be relinquished.

"Greenidge is operating in violation of the CLCPA and should not be permitted to operate," said Mandy DeRoche, a deputy managing attorney in the Clean Energy Program at Earthjustice. "The clients we are advocating for in this case have been fighting back against this greenhouse gas-emitting giant for years and sounding the alarm on the disastrous impacts of this facility on their water sources, air, and climate. We strongly oppose Greenidge's continued attempts to pollute the Finger Lakes and climate, and their broader efforts to gut the DEC's authority."

"By arguing that the DEC has no authority to deny air permits under the CLCPA, Greenidge is trying to decimate New York's monumental climate law," said Kate Bartholomew, Atlantic Chapter Chair, Sierra Club. "If the court rules in favor of Greenidge Generation and upholds the big polluter's erroneous claims in this case, it could end up giving the green light to more big polluters across the state to bring similar lawsuits. This could be disastrous for the state, and by extension, the planet."

While the case proceeds, Greenidge continues to operate its cryptomine and the fossil fuel plant it bought to power the facility around the clock-consuming enormous amounts of climate-warming energy and endangering the surrounding communities.

"In addition to spewing climate-warming greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the Greenidge cryptomining operation has been polluting the local air and sucking up millions of gallons of water a day from Seneca Lake and dumping it back in at dangerously hot temperatures," said Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian. "It's absurd that Greenidge is still operating, and we will keep fighting until the facility is shut down."

"Since Greenidge Generation bought the inefficient 1950s fossil fuel plant-that had been shut down for years-to power its cryptomining, it has been emitting global-warming, toxic air pollutants through a smokestack into our communities and atmosphere," said Irene Weiser, coordinator of Fossil Free Tompkins, an environmental advocacy group in the region and friend of the court in this case. "This power plant is 67 years old, and uses outdated technology that causes more pollution than its counterparts. A person of this age would have retired. Surely the DEC should be able to close a massively polluting old power plant that has never proven it is needed to support the public electric grid."

Briefs in support of DEC's permit denial from Fossil Free Tompkins and Colin Read, Professor of Money, Banking, and Sustainability at SUNY Plattsburgh and former Mayor of the City of Plattsburgh are available by request.