North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - A decision from a State Supreme Court judge on Thursday is forcing the State Public Service Commission (PSC) to now reconsider the acquisition of a gas power plant by a cryptocurrency mining company in North Tonawanda.
According to the decision released by Justice Richard Platkin, he feels the PSC should have taken into consideration the state's climate law when Digihost was looking to take ownership of the former Fortistar plant back in September 2022 along Erie Avenue.
This means now the PSC will, once again, take a look at the Declaratory Ruling that petitioners sought a rehearing for in October 2022. They argued that Digihost's operation of the facility would increase the level of greenhouse gas emissions, and the PSC failed to consider the increased emissions or their effect on disadvantaged communities before approving the transfer of ownership.
If the PSC determines the transfer will "be inconsistent with or will interfere with the attainment of the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits," the PSC "shall provide a detailed statement of justification as to why such limits/criteria may not be met, and identify alternatives or greenhouse gas mitigation measures to be required where such project is located."
North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec feels this decision is, more or less, setting the tone for a lot of other projects like the one in North Tonawanda.
"Everything that I'm reading, both sides seem to think there's somehow a win-win, but ultimately, it sounds like these Title V clean air permits, they do have the authority, ultimately, to weigh in New York State's climate goals when making a decision about renewing these permits that people are applying for," said Tylec during an interview with WBEN.
At this time, Tylec feels it's too early to tell whether this will affect the future of the plant in North Tonawanda.
"The permit that Digihost here applied for is still pending, like many others in New York State. I'm planning to reach out to the company today and get their thoughts a bit, but I think it's really just showing that these state agencies need to take into account what New York State's goals are with our climate change and emission goals that we're trying to achieve here," Tylec noted. "The thing that I keep questioning with these fossil fuel burning energy plants is, is New York State going to still allow them to operate to feed the grid when need be, when there's peaks in demand, just not power things like these data processing centers for cryptocurrency mining? That would be a question I have."
For several months now, residents in the surrounding areas of the Digihost plant have clamored for the ceasing of new crypto-mining operations in North Tonawanda, citing greenhouse emissions and noise pollution as the major concerns surrounding the plant.
In July, the North Tonawanda Common Council voted unanimously to place a moratorium on new cyrpto-mining operations in the city, putting a pause on any new crypto-mining plants, as well as the expansion of existing facilities like Digihost.
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Tylec feels Thursday's decision is a positive step forward for the neighbors and the community members around the plant.
"Speaking with some residents today even about it, they do seem pretty happy about the direction of this so far, regarding these decisions and whether or not these permits will be approved," Tylec said. "It sounds like people are happy so far with this next step, but time will tell, and there's a lot of other steps forward. I'm just going to keep in communication with state officials that I talk to, state agencies, residents and even Digihost operators as well."
In recent months, Tylec says the plant hasn't been operating at full force, only at around 10 megawatts when they could be operating at 55 megawatts.
"It has been quite quiet lately, which we're all happy to hear, especially the residents in that neighborhood," Tylec noted. "So there hasn't been too many complaints thus far."
Tylec remains adamant that city officials are keeping tabs on what's happening in-and-around the plant, and that the ducks all need to be put in a row.
"We do still have on retainer a third-party acoustic engineer, who does plan to come out in the near future when they are fully operational and do those readings. We still are moving forward with updates to our noise ordinances and our zoning ordinances regarding these types of operations. So I think the two-year moratorium was an important step forward. Not just this facility, but you never know what other types of facilities would try and pop up in the meanwhile," Tylec said.
When talking to those spearheading the emission issues and climate laws surrounding Digihost, Tylec still has some questions with some of the decisions that he's hoping to get some answers with.
"Do you think the DEC would ever permit something like this, this type of operation, or put stipulations on it? And really the only thing that I heard was, maybe they would say, 'All right, you have to go from a proof of work operation to a proof of stake,'" Tylec said. "For those who don't know, the proof of stake is a lot less energy intensive, and a lot of these facilities don't utilize that type of work and they really just do proof of work operations. So I guess time will tell, and we'll see how the DEC handles it."