After multiple delays, the state Department of Environmental Conservation today denied a highly anticipated air permit renewal to the Greenidge Generation, a crypto mining facility in the town of Dresden on Seneca Lake.

According to DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, the air permit was denied because the state’s aggressive climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), had passed in the five years since the plant’s original application.

“The five-year renewal comes up. We take a look at it and apply the CLCPA to the application and the emissions that we see currently, and ultimately determined the plant was inconsistent with the state’s climate law,” Seggos said. “So, it was a very important decision today.”

The CLCPA’s goal is to achieve 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, and a reduction of 85% of greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2050.

In an emailed statement, Greenidge said “its operations in New York will continue uninterrupted during (an) extended judicial review process.” “It is important for all Greenidge stakeholders to know this decision does not have any impact on our current operations in Dresden. Because our application was already deemed complete, we operate pursuant to the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA). Consistent with the provisions of the SAPA, we can continue running uninterrupted under our existing Title V Air Permit, which is still in effect, for as long as it takes to successfully challenge this arbitrary and capricious decision.”

Seggos said that Greenidge has 30 days to appeal the ruling.

“Then, we as an agency will have to access, through our hearings process, which is a judicial process, whether or not to deny was appropriate,” he explained. “And then there are appeals beyond that as well (and), of course, the court system.”

The group Seneca Lake Guardian which has been fighting the kind of behind-the-meter, proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining currently underway at Greenidge, lauded the decision.

"This is an incredible, precedent-setting moment for everyone who has fought side by side with the Finger Lakes community. Governor Hochul and the DEC stood with science and the people and sent a message to outside speculators: New York's former fossil fuel-burning plants are not yours to re-open as gas-guzzling Bitcoin mining cancers on our communities," said Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian.

The group also urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a two-year moratorium on crypto mining that the Legislature passed in June.