NEW: Greenidge Generation Makes Yet Another Desperate Emergency Appeal to Stall Legal Proceedings

YATES COUNTY, NY (01/29/2025) (readMedia)-- After yet another loss for Greenidge Generation on Friday at the trial-court level, the climate-killing cryptominer filed another emergency request to the Appellate Division of the New York State Court to delay an administrative court hearing within the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The emergency request for a stay comes days after the Yates County Supreme Court decision last week to deny Greenidge's initial emergency request for a stay.

Greenidge continues to drag out court proceedings over the span of multiple years in its ongoing battle for an air permit renewal to continue cryptomining, while emitting hundreds of thousands of greenhouse gases and local air pollution. By delaying these proceedings, Greenidge is forcing the surrounding Finger Lakes community to endure the cryptomine's constant noise, air, and water pollution – all while it continues to operate without a valid air permit.

"This most recent emergency request to the Appellate Division is yet another effort by Greenidge to boost its own profits while it harms the Finger Lakes residents we represent, the local environment, and the climate," said Mandy DeRoche, a deputy managing attorney in the Clean Energy Program at Earthjustice. "Our clients deserve to move forward with the administrative court hearing. Justice delayed is justice denied, and we will keep fighting until the Greenidge cryptomine is shut down for good."

In November, the Yates County Supreme Court ruled that the DEC can deny permits to operations like Greenidge's cryptomine for violating New York's climate law, the CLCPA, and found that Greenidge's operations were inconsistent with the CLCPA. Nonetheless, the judge allowed Greenidge to return to the lower DEC administrative court a fourth time to present more evidence on whether its continued operation is justified. Greenidge wants to stall the DEC hearing while it appeals the November decision.

State administrative law allows Greenidge to continue operating while the DEC's administrative court hearing is pending. Greenidge first brought this case to the New York Supreme Court after the DEC administrative court denied its air permit renewal request for a third time in May 2024.

Earthjustice represents Seneca Lake Guardian, the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, Fossil Free Tompkins, and the Sierra Club. Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna LLP is co-counsel. These groups are fighting to protect the upstate communities they serve from the harmful polluting impacts of the Greenidge operation.

###