Moratorium

The legislation will temporarily pause new large-scale mining operations at dormant, fossil fuel-burning power plants, while the DEC studies the potential environmental impacts of the sector.

The bill still needs a vote in the Senate and approval from Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The report compares the legal process for implementing a moratorium to the one that was used to temporarily halt high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in 2010.

A separate piece of legislation by Kelles could possibly come up for a final vote as soon as Monday

If passed, a moratorium would be the first statewide restriction on cryptocurrency mining in the U.S.