I’ve been pretty bullish on cryptocurrencies for a number of years, but it has to be acknowledged that it’s not if there are externalities, there are legitimate

I’ve been pretty bullish on cryptocurrencies for a number of years, but it has to be acknowledged that it’s not if there are externalities, there are legitimate real world externalities that need to be considered. The article says that some residents of Plattsburgh have seen their electric bills go up by $100 or $200. Many of those residents will not see significant offsetting benefits. Plattsburgh, New York as of the census of 2010: “The median income for a household in the city was $28,846 … About 13.6% of families and 23.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under age 18 and 13.0% of those age 65 or over.”[0] The income levels in federal poverty guidelines [1] are pretty low so there are very likely a number of households in the city that are above but near the guideline. However, it isn’t necessary to get bogged down by federal poverty definition to acknowledge that some folks are going to have a hard time with unexpected energy bills. For a while I worked as a manager of a program that helps low income households with their utility bills. I can tell you from experience that if a fixed income senior or low income family were to suddenly receive a utility bill that was $200 higher than they were expecting, they would face serious hardship. Even as a somewhat comfortable working family with two incomes, my household finances would be thrown into a bit of disarray if we suddenly had to pay substantially more per month for electricity and I wouldn’t be too happy as rate payer if that increase came with no benefit for me. The utility can’t just decide on a new rate schedule and start billing it, they have to go through a process. The process for setting utility rates is typically a protracted and expensive affair. I am not as familiar with rate cases in the eastern states, but per the NY State website it looks like it takes about a year [2]. If folks can’t pay their utility bills now, it’s not going to get easier. City leaders see that their neighbors are having a difficult time so it seems reasonable to put a hold on mining activities until they can come to an equitable solution. It is unfair to other rate payers if they are being asked to effectively subsidize mining activities. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattsburgh_(city)%2C_New_York#Demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattsburgh_(city)%2C_New_York... [1] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/18/2018-00814/annual-update-of-the-hhs-poverty-guidelines https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/18/2018-00... [2] http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/0/364D0704BEEC5B7D85257856006C56B3 http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/0/364D0704BEEC5B7D852578...