Two environmental groups, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, sought the extended comment period, arguing that the fuel choices needed to be evaluated for greenhouse gas emissions.
The 57 public comments submitted as of Tuesday were heavily negative from environmentalists and several city residents, but there were supportive statements from business people and from Robert E. Pecoraro, president of the North Tonawanda Common Council and Republican candidate for mayor.
“This will reduce the carbon footprint in the short term (replacement of natural gas with renewable natural gas) and long term (implementing green hydrogen and other renewable technologies),” Pecoraro wrote to the PSC Sept. 3. “The end goal for Digihost is to achieve zero carbon generation by 2025. After careful consideration and my own personal research, I am in full support of Digihost’s efforts and welcome them to North Tonawanda.”
On Sept. 7, the city Planning Commission unanimously approved Digihost’s revised plans to stack shipping containers, packed with computers, on the front lawn of the power plant.
The computers, to be powered by the plant’s electrical output, would perform the complex calculations needed for secure transactions in the emerging investment field of Bitcoin and other online cryptocurrency.
Critics say the power drain needed for such blockchain computations makes “data mining,” as the calculations are known, an environmental hazard, driving a need for more electricity from plants that burn fossil fuels.