A New York Administrative Law Judge (โALJโ) issued a decision (Resolution on Issues and Party Status [โDecisionsโ]) confirming the decision of the New York State Department of Conservation (โNYDECโ) to deny renewal of the Clean Air Act Title V permit for Greenidge Generation, LLC (โGGLโ).
GGL had submitted an application to renew a Title V air permit for the continued operation of a natural gas-fired electric generation facility (โFacilityโ) in the City of Torrey, New York.
The facility is described as an electricity generating plant fueled primarily by natural gas. Generation capacity is estimated to be approximately 107 megawatts with maximum heat input limited to 1.117 million BTUs per hour.
The primary purpose of the facility has been described as providing behind-the-meter power to a cryptocurrency mining operation.
NYDEC is said to have determined that the facility is operating primarily to meet a significant new power load caused by its GGL PoW cryptocurrency mining operation.
NYDEC denied GGL's application for Title V air permit renewal in 2022. The denial was based on the application of the New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (โCLCPAโ) that was enacted in 2019. The CLCPA requires NYDEC to establish a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit as a percentage of 1990 emissions. A 60% reduction of 1990 emissions by 2030 and a 15% reduction of 1990 emissions by 2050 is required. .
It was claimed that NYDEC's denial of permit renewal was based on a determination that the facility would not comply with the requirements of the CLCPA. Factors NYDEC allegedly considered in the denial included:
- Increase in the Fund's greenhouse gas emissions since passage of the CLCPA
- Referenced increase driven by the change in the main purpose of your operations
In other words, one issue considered by NYDEC was the Fund's shift from primarily providing power to New York's power grid to providing behind-the-meter power to support the demands of GGL's cryptocurrency mining operations.
GGL appealed the NYDEC's decision to the ALJ.
The ALJ upheld NYDEC's decision that the GGL Facility's operations will interfere with the CLCPA's greenhouse gas emissions limits. The administrative judge declared:
. . . the facility's increasing actual GHG emissions and Greenidge's projections that actual GHG emissions would continue to increase to equal the maximum allowable PTE. [Potential to Emit]were sufficient to establish that the renovation of the facility was inconsistent with the CLCPA's GHG emissions goal.
GGL was found to have failed to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Facility's operations as a cryptocurrency mine were "justified" under the CLCPA.
The ALJ also determined that there was insufficient evidence to show actual, permanent, quantifiable, and enforceable evidence to minimize or mitigate damages under the CLCPA.
Central to both the NYDEC and ALJ decisions was the fact that the purpose of the facility had changed from a peaking power plant to a constantly running cryptocurrency mining operation. NYDEC's determination that the primary purpose of the facility had changed from a peak-activity facility to one that primarily provides power for behind-the-meter cryptocurrency mining was upheld.
Therefore, the ALJ affirmed NYDEC's denial decision.
The ALJ's ruling can now be appealed to the NYDEC Commissioner.
A copy of the ALJ decision can be downloaded here.
