NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain
2024-11-16

Victory was declared all around after a New York State Supreme Court ruling allowed Greenidge Generation to continue power generation and Bitcoin mining at its Dresden, New York, facility and reapply to renew the Clean Air Act Title V Air Permit the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied it in June 2022.
At the same time, the court affirmed the DEC’s authority to deny Greenidge the permit under the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The court found the DEC had acted capriciously in this case, but “Greenidge did not establish that DEC engaged in improper policymaking.”
Greenidge permit will be reconsidered
Greenidge lost its appeal of the DEC’s licensing denial in May and filed an Article 78 petition to the state supreme court seeking a review of the decision. Its plant in the Finger Lakes region of New York was scheduled to close on Nov. 14 if the Supreme Court did not satisfy its petition.
Judge Vincent DiNolfo found in a Nov. 14 ruling that:
The judge annulled the permit denial and remitted the matter to the DEC for reconsideration consistent with his decision.
Rhetoric in high production
Passions ran high in this case, as was seen in the responses to Judge DiNolfo’s decision. Greenidge said in a statement that “the ruling ensures […] our local employees will not have their careers ripped away by politically motivated governmental overreach that had no basis in law.”
The nonprofit Earthjustice gained the status of intervenor in the case — that is, a third party that has interests in it — on the behalf of several environmental organizations. Greenidge referred to them as the DEC’s “allies in the advocacy community for whom truth was a bridge too far.”
Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter chair Kate Bartholomew said in a statement released by Earthjustice:
“I am disgusted by how much this polluter is allowed to abuse the legal system and to continue operating as it aggressively litigates its weak claims,” Bartholomew continued.