Even if miners claim to rely on renewable energy, their operations are still hogging energy that we would need to meet the county and state carbon reduction goals,” he said.īut not everyone at the hearing supported the moratorium. “There is no way to greenwash crypto mining. “They have proven to be a nuisance to neighbors and a threat to our environment,” Chris Joyell, with the environmental group Mountain True, said during a public hearing over the temporary ban in Buncombe County. It only includes unincorporated areas of Buncombe County. The ban would expire after a year or when the county comes up with new rules for where the server farms can be located. “The moratorium will maintain the status quo by limiting any negative effects in neighborhoods impacted by this use until a proper regulatory scheme can be developed,” the ordinance states. The commission passed the moratorium unanimously last week. “This one-year pause gives us time to work with residents and craft standards,” he said. The server farms are attracted to western North Carolina by low-cost energy and lax zoning regulations, according to a recent report from the Environmental Working Group.Ĭryptocurrency miners have also been looking for new places to set up shop since China banned most of their operations two years ago, according to the Associated Press.īuncombe County Planning Director Nathan Pennington said the county is working on a new comprehensive plan. ![]() The operations have brought complaints from nearby residents over the 24-hour noise from the servers and cooling equipment in previously quiet rural areas in the North Carolina mountains. They use warehouses full of powerful computers that require a lot of electricity. In December, Cherokee County passed a resolution asking the legislature for more power to regulate cryptocurrency mines.Ĭryptocurrency mines use server farms to run complicated algorithms to “mine” Bitcoin and similar digital currencies. Clay County passed a resolution banning the farms and Mason County is considering a similar ordinance
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