NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

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:

“DEC had the authority to deny Greenidge's Renewal Application under CLCPA §7(2), but in utilizing that authority in its Final Denial, acted in a manner that was both affected by errors of law and arbitrary and capricious.”

The judge annulled the permit denial and remitted the matter to the DEC for reconsideration consistent with his decision.

Source: Carol Anne Farrell

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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:

“Not only was Greenidge trying to overturn the prior DEC decisions, it was also trying to decimate New York’s monumental climate law. I’m heartened that the court saw through the out-of-state polluter’s erroneous claims in this case.” 

“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.

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