Letter sent by the LWV of NYS to members of the NYS Senate and Assembly
Subject: Establishes a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations that use proof-of-work authentication methods to validate blockchain transactions.
The League of Women Voters of New York State strongly supports A.7389C/S.6486C.
For decades the League of Women Voters has held positions urging vigilance in protecting air and water quality. “The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that natural resources should be managed as interrelated parts of life-supporting ecosystems.
Resources should be conserved and protected to assure their future availability. Pollution of these resources should be controlled in order to preserve the physical, chemical and biological integrity of ecosystems and to protect public health.”
The interest in cryptocurrency mining in New York has been growing exponentially. However, cryptocurrency mining creates significant localized impacts in the communities where plants are located, and harms our climate. Proof of Work authentication for blockchain transactions presents potentially serious adverse environmental consequences including significant use
of electrical energy. By vastly increasing the amount of electricity used, cryptocurrency mining leads to generation of substantial amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from burning of fossil fuels, the use of great volumes of water which are often returned to a body of
water such as Seneca Lake at a much hotter temperature, thereby affecting fishing, agriculture and the wine industry, the frequent replacement of supercomputers generating significant amounts of ewaste, and noise from fans running 24/7 that affects neighbors’ quality of life and health. The rise of cryptocurrency mining threatens the state’s compliance with our climate goals in law, under the 2019 Climate Leadership
and Community Protection Act. Additionally, use
of renewable energy for cryptocurrency mining diverts these critical resources away from households and businesses in our state, moving us further from the aggressive renewable energy requirements we have
in law.
The League of Women Voters of New York State strongly urges your support of A.7389C/S.6486C.
