New York Power Authorities to Charge Bitcoin Miners More

More and more authorities seem to have started to look with a critical eye on the cryptocurrency mining market. Among these authorities is now the New York State Public Service Commission. The commission has recently claimed that power companies are allowed to impose high tariffs on those who conduct cryptocurrency mining operations.

The Public Service Commission says power companies can apply higher rates to miners

Apparently, many miners have moved to the north of the New York state with the main purpose to take advantage of low-cost power. The commission has already ruled in favour of power companies increasing their rates for cryptocurrency mining operators and the official ruling was announced this week.

Of course, The New York Public Service Commission also gave a reasoning to why it made this decision. The authority claimed that it was actually needed “to prevent local electricity prices for existing residential and business customers from skyrocketing.”

The commission also said that mining operations consume a lot of energy, sometimes “thousands of times” more than a regular customer. The commission also said in certain areas mining operations turn out to represent around 33% of the total use of energy, which of course is a very impressive amount. Of course, there is no shock in that, as it is a well-known fact that mining consumes huge amounts of electricity.

Considering these high numbers, some locations, such as Plattsburgh, have actually decided to temporarily ban new bitcoin mining operations. The high energy consumption had some bad consequences for the locals, as electricity bills started to increase.

The high energy consumption has also risen concerns from environmentalists, who have constantly criticized the cryptocurrency market.