New York town weighs crypto mining and AI data center ban — SkimNews
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- Plattsburgh, NY held a Thursday public hearing on a proposed moratorium targeting "certain high energy computing facilities," including cryptocurrency mining and AI data centers.
- The proposed law would halt approvals for any operation requiring 300 or more kilowatts for a 12-month period.
- Mayor Wendell Hughes and the common council heard from members of the public, but as of Tuesday the mayor had not approved the moratorium.
- The town council is scheduled to hold another meeting on September 17 to continue deliberations.
- Plattsburgh passed one of the first U.S. outright bans on Bitcoin mining in 2018 — an 18-month moratorium driven by resident complaints about electricity costs.
- Many crypto mining companies have pivoted to AI and high-performance computing amid rising mining difficulty, climbing power costs, and falling token prices.
Why it matters: The proposed 300 kW threshold would capture both legacy crypto mining and the AI data center pivot that miners have increasingly embraced, meaning Plattsburgh's local model of energy-cost-driven resistance is now targeting the industry's primary growth alternative.
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