Town of Massena extends cryptocurrency mining moratorium to Jan. 31 - NNY360

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Updated: November 18, 2022 @ 2:31 am
The Massena Town Board has extended its moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations until the end of January. But, one resident thinks they should skip the moratorium and ban the operations completely until state regulations are in place. Christopher Lenney/Watertown Daily Times

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The Massena Town Board has extended its moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations until the end of January. But, one resident thinks they should skip the moratorium and ban the operations completely until state regulations are in place. Christopher Lenney/Watertown Daily Times
MASSENA — The Massena Town Board has extended its moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations until the end of January. But, one resident thinks they should skip the moratorium and ban the operations completely until state regulations are in place.
Town Supervisor Susan J. Bellor said she had received written comments regarding the moratorium, and David Fenton was the lone in-person speaker during Wednesday’s board meeting.
“I did receive some notifications from other people even up to this afternoon. I’m hoping that we do extend the moratorium for a lot of reasons here, but I’ve gotten a few emails that they want us to extend that. In fact, some of them want to end it completely. So, they’re in favor of extending it. I also received in all fairness from Petawatt, who’s concerned about it because of the property they own for a future cryptocurrency mining project,” Mrs. Bellor said.
Mr. Fenton suggested the town ban all cryptocurrency operations until there’s guidance from the state. He said he had corresponded several times with Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul, as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation because of the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining operations.
“Recently, when Kathy was just elected, it was said that one of her downfalls is she’s never been able to make any regulations for cryptocurrency mining,” he said.
He said that, without regulations, there was no protection for investors if a company went bankrupt, “and I think that in itself it’s a major problem. You’re taking the risk where right now there’s no government regulations. You’re perpetuating an industry that doesn’t have any protection. They can go bankrupt very easily. You’re supporting that. I do not think it’s a very good idea.”
Mr. Fenton recalled that town officials had extended the moratorium several times.
“I think it’s time that you admit, and I don’t say this derogatorily, but you don’t know what’s going on with crypto mining at this time, but you just say we will no longer do it until New York state comes out with some regulations. You’re looking like crazy people when you keep saying we want a moratorium,” he said.
“If you go down towards Alcoa, there’s great big fans blowing carbon emissions all over the place. If you go across the street, you see dredging going on for other industries that have created environmental impacts that we didn’t know about at the time when they were going on. But, we do know that crypto mining causes environmental problems, and we need to try to get our Seaway and everything back to where it should be and where it needs to be. So, I ask you people tonight not to extend for another six months, but to postpone any suggestions for cryptocurrency mining,” he said.
Councilor Thomas C. Miller took exception to some of Mr. Fenton’s comments. He said it was a good idea to extend the moratorium until they had information in hand that would benefit the town of Massena.
“A moratorium is not to make this board look stupid because we’re extending it by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “I will say this, board members, you have worked diligently researching this. So, for that comment to say that we look bad because we’re extending that, it’s not true. I think we’re extending it to make it right, so we get the right information so that it benefits the Massena community and not individuals with certain things.”
Town Attorney Eric J. Gustafson said he had not seen any state regulations regarding cryptocurrency mining.
“At this point, I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe we’re going to have cryptocurrency mining regulations at the state level,” he said.
“I can tell you, I checked this morning. There’s absolutely nothing going on within our state with cryptocurrency mining,” Mr. Fenton said.
Mr. Gustafson said they were getting close to having local regulations in hand.
“I think we’re just about there. We’ve got some work to do. They’re waiting for a draft of cryptocurrency mining operations from me. I have a draft that I think is almost ready for their consideration. I’m just not quite ready, but we’re close. I think the January time frame will give us enough time to finalize the regulations, have the committee review it, and then have it out for public hearing sometime in December or January so that it can be adopted, he said.
Johnson Newspapers 7.1
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