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Seneca Lake Guardian Joins Town of Torrey Lawsuit over Greenidge Power Plant Expansion

Urges FLX Residents to sign on to Letter to Cuomo (see links at bottom of the page)

Dresden, NY- Seneca Lake Guardian joined an Article 78 lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, and numerous citizens, who sued the town of Torrey, New York, Thursday, claiming a recently approved 24/7 bitcoin data mining’s operation whose increase in power usage would harm fish populations, increase algae blooms and interfere with boating and swimming in Seneca Lake.

The groups object to the antiquated gas-fired power plant, located on Seneca Lake, because it was originally permitted by the PSC as a “peaker plant” to provide the public with additional energy only when needed, but now the facility, known as “Greenidge” and owned by Atlas Holdings, has been transitioned into a private bitcoin and data mining operation for 2 millionaires from Connecticut and is no longer serving the public needs.*  It has since applied for a tremendous increase in power generation, which would run “behind the meter”, meaning none of the greenhouse gas emissions would be considered or evaluated as part of Governor Cuomo’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which limits statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050. 

The lawsuit maintains that the Town of Torrey, by permitting this expansion, has violated various state laws, including New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The Greenidge facility expansion would withdraw 160 million gallons of Seneca Lake water and return it, hot, into a trout stream that leads directly back to Seneca, a drinking water source for 100,000; causing just the right conditions for increased Harmful Algal Blooms. Members of the groups who filed are concerned about the expansion’s negative impact on the fish, the health of the lake, their drinking water, and their way of life.

The organizations also worry that the Public Service Commission and the Finger Lakes Community has been misled, so that Atlas could secure a Certificate for Public Convenience and Necessity as a peaker plant to serve the public. But the project is no longer designed to meet the reasonable needs of the public, since Greenidge was originally permitted to generate power for public use, and now it wants to generate power for its own, private bitcoin mining operation. Residents and the environmental groups believe that the Town should have taken a much closer look at the negative impacts this plant will have on residents and the larger community, and that Governor Cuomo should revoke any permits issued to the Greenidge Facility.

“We think this end-around move, of getting permitted to spew tons of greenhouse gases while avoiding the regulations of the CLCPA, could have implications for other NY facilities”, said Yvonne Taylor, Vice President of Seneca Lake Guardian.  “Atlas Holdings has partnerships with Castleton Commodities International LLC, which owns other facilities in the Lower Hudson Valley, and near Albany. There are plans afoot for a gas-fired data mining transition on Cayuga Lake as well”, said Taylor.

Groups are asking regional business owners, other organizations, Finger Lakes residents and visitors to sign on to a letter to Governor Cuomo opposing the expansion. Links to the letters can be found here:

If you are a business or organization, please sign here: https://forms.gle/cre8WD6ScBun3PAU7

If you are an individual, please sign here: https://forms.gle/wsxdbX8UCwiZj6HVA

Click the image below for a related article on Seneca Lake Guardians.

*Mining Bitcoin is a hugely wasteful process. Miners use powerful computing hardware to solve difficult, and pointless, (beyond profit) puzzles. More computing power increases your chances of making money. Bitcoin mining accounts for apx. 0.2% of global electricity consumption and does nothing to benefit or serve the communities that these plants are operated out of.

Posted on December 21, 2020 by owllightnews.com. This entry was posted in Civics, Community Information, Environmental, Health and tagged #SenecaLakeGuardians. Bookmark the permalink.
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