New York Senate Approves Bill Banning Fossil Fuel Powered Crypto Mining Operations

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Evening

New York moves closer to be the first state to ban the crypto mining from the energy coming from fossil fuels. On Friday New York state senate approved the bill by 36-27 majority essentially barring all new mining operations in the state territory and restraining renewals of already existing mining licenses.
After getting approved from the senate the bill will now be sent to Governor Kathy Hochul for signature. Governor can either veto it or sign it into a law.

The bill S6486D proposes a two year ban on all new mining operation based upon fossil fuels. It also calls for cap on existing mining operations and pausing the license renewals.

Interestingly the bill doesn't bans mining operations that are based on renewable energy or mining operations of less energy hungry proof of stake (PoS) based blockchains.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are two industry's biggest blockchains, that use energy intensive proof of work (PoW )consensus mechanism. Meaning miners have to vest power hungry hardware to compete for validating next block of transactions.

The ban if implemented will be majorly focused on Bitcoin mining as Bitcoin network is essentially to rely on PoW consensus mechanism at least in foreseeable future. Whereas Ethereum is poised to shift to PoS consensus mechanism in Q3 this year, so Ethereum mining may get exempted from the ban.

There has been increasing debate and pressure regarding the environmental impact of proof of work (PoW) based crypto currencies. Bitcoin is the largest one when it comes to power consumption. As per Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, if Bitcoin were a nation it would rank 23rd in world by power consumption.

As per bill huge majority of New York's crypto mining is fossil fuels based. Some crypto mining companies have purchased retired fossil fuel power plants, are operating them at even a higher rate to power their mining operations.
The bill however faced strong opposition from the representative of crypto industry who warned that it will a huge set back for state economic growth.

For now it seems the future of New York PoW based mining operations lays in the hands of Governor. Governor can of course veto the bill but considering the increasing pressure from environmental lobbies the chances are thin. How Bitcoin and overall crypto industry will be affected?...That remains to be seen.