Good morning. Today is Wednesday. We will be looking at a bill on crypto mining (and what crypto mining is). We’ll also see how Governor Kathy Hochul and her two Democratic challengers did in their first major debate.
Cryptocurrency interests are lobbying Governor Kathy Hochul to veto a groundbreaking bill that would temporarily halt new cryptocurrency mining projects at fossil fuel-burning plants.
Let’s spend some time here and do some unpacking. Cryptocurrency mining does not involve pickaxes and shovels. It refers to a verification process required for the Bitcoin economy. Computers can plug into the Bitcoin network and confirm the legitimacy of transactions. This now involves five positions guessing the number in one second. One trillion is one million trillion.
In the early years of Bitcoin, crypto enthusiasts could mine at home. But as Bitcoin’s popularity grows, mining requires more computational mechanisms, far beyond what most home computers can handle. That makes mining more and more energy-intensive. Cryptocurrency Companies Start Trying reuse old coal-fired power plants and generate electricity “behind the meter”.
That’s where the bill that was passed last week comes into effect. It will impose a two-year ban on new crypto mining licenses at fossil fuel burning plants.
[Fight Looms Over New York’s Bid to Slow Crypto-Mining Boom]
It is unclear if Hochul will sign the bill, but the deep pocket crypto industry is expected to spend heavily to convince her not to. Her campaign received $40,000 from the CEO of a company whose crypto mining operations were at an old aluminum plant in Massena, NY, northeast of Niagara Falls.
Much more has gone to Lieutenant General Antonio Delgado, who is facing two main challenges this month. FTX, a major cryptocurrency exchange, is spending about $1 million through a super PAC on television and digital advertising to support Delgado’s campaign, according to state filings. (Michael Levine, a spokesman for PACs, said they are focused on candidates they believe will support pandemic preparedness measures, even though the ads mention Deglado’s work on pandemic preparedness measures. other issues, including climate change, infrastructure and abortion.)
Congress passed the bill in April, but the measure stalled in the Senate until it was unexpectedly reinstated and passed just before the Senate adjourned for a year early Friday morning. The vote followed a Cryptocurrency Mining Suppression in China sent some mining operations to the United States.
Crypto companies have switched to generating their own electricity at old power plants in upstate New York that have been closed because they are polluters. According to Representative Anna Kelles, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in the House, there are 19 mining operations in the works right now or possibly later this year.
Read more about the crypto world
The concern is that restarting old factories would reverse the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that closing them has helped deliver – which in turn would slow the state’s progress on climate goals that it won’t achieve. it may have been slowed down.
The bill will not affect cryptocurrency mining projects that draw electricity from their grid. But some advocates say such things should also be banned because they waste electricity.
Some crypto executives say that the ban in New York will simply send mining operations elsewhere. But Senator Kevin Parker, a Democrat from Brooklyn who sponsored the bill, said it was not intended to discourage the industry.
“If people want to mine crypto in the state of New York, which I am very open to,” he said, “then we need to do it in a sustainable way.”
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Valid until June 20 (ie, June 12).
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Thomas Suozzi and Jumaane Williams, Democrats whose approach to issues like fighting crime could hardly be different, have a single goal in common on Tuesday night. My colleague Nicholas Fandos describes that goal as pushing Governor Kathy Hochul out of her clear slide to reach a full 4-year term in the first major confrontation of the three candidates. Democrats in the June 28 primary election.
Hochul was on the defensive for much of the hour-long argument. Suozzi accused Hochul of being tied to special interests, from the hotel company her husband works for for the National Rifle Association, which supported her when she ran for Congress in 2012.
“Only one of us here has ever been confirmed by the NRA,” said Suozzi. Hochul countered that “that was a decade ago,” adding, “A lot of people have evolved since I took that position. You know what we need? More people to grow. “
Both Williams and Suozzi have reached an agreement to spend $600 million in public funds on a $1.4 billion stadium for Hochul’s hometown team, the Buffalo Bills. Suozzi calls it “the biggest taxpayer gift in NFL history.”
“We asked for $1 billion to be invested in gun violence,” Williams said. “What we got was $1 billion to build the stadium that her husband rented.”
Expand your crypto vocabulary
Hochul said the profits from the stadium would “far exceed the investment” and that the deal would create 10,000 jobs. “But I also understand people are wondering this, I really do,” she said. “Every part of the state has regional priorities. Buffalo Bills is the identity of western New York in the same way that Broadway is to New York City. It’s part of who they are. “
She admitted that the indictment of Brian Benjamin, whom she chose to be lieutenant colonel governor, was “a step backwards” after she had promised to restore “trust in the government.” Benjamin resigned in April after he was charged with bribery and fraud in his previous job as a state senator.
Hochul defends the relatively modest changes to the rollback in state bail laws. Suozzi criticized her for not pressing lawmakers to give judges full discretion to assess a defendant’s “danger level” when deciding on bail.
“Danger is subjective,” Hochul said. “I think what we’re giving the judges better is that this vague term can be subjective and many times used against an individual because of the color of their skin.”
METROPOLITAN . Diary
Saturday matinee
Dear Diary:
I’m sitting in my regular Saturday afternoon chair at the Midwood Theater in Brooklyn, on the right half. As usual, I ate corned beef with rye and pickles. This day is so special. The main feature is “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.”
The only thing I remember is the monster being freed from a block of ice. When he comes back to life – that’s it! It is too much for a 10 year old kid. I’m a bit confused.
That night, I had a nightmare about Frankenstein melting in my bed. And no one was at home at the time. My mother was playing gin at Mrs. Langbaum’s, and my father was driving a taxi.
My mother lost her key and asked Langbaums’ son, Ira, to climb up our fire escape and get the spare. Up several stories he came to a strange apartment.
He opened the window, tripped and fell through the curtain onto my bed.
Frankenstein has come to me!
I sat up straight, moving my lips but nothing came out.
My mother took the keys, and I got into the habit of waking up in the middle of the night, pushing the curtains aside, and checking to see if Frankenstein was escaping the fire.
More than 75 years later, I still miss you, Ira Langbaum.
– Stewart Steckel
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
So glad we can get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB
PS This is for today Small crosswords and Spell Bee. You can find all our quizzes here.
Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
