- The ban aims to ensure the general population has access to affordable energy
- Conifex and an indigenous tribe were planning joint mining operations
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled that a moratorium on crypto mining projects in the Canadian province passed two years ago was reasonable, a judgment posted on the British Columbia courts’ website shows.
Ban contested by forestry company Conifex Timber
The moratorium was contested by the forestry company Conifex Timber, which had added crypto mining to its operations. Conifex and the indigenous tribe Tsay Keh Dene Nation were planning joint mining operations.
Justice Michael Tammen ruled that the moratorium was not only practical but also lay within the framework set by the province’s Utilities Commission Act. B.C. Hydro placed the moratorium at the end of 2022, about a month after New York State imposed a similar moratorium on crypto mining on its territory.
Mining has ‘unique, significant’ energy demands
According to Justice Tammen, the ban was based on the cost of the service, which takes the unique and significant energy demands of cryptocurrency mining into account. The ban aims to ensure the general population has access to affordable energy.
The judge wrote there was evidence that crypto mining centers had “unique electric power consumption” properties. In fact, B.C. Hydro’s projections were for far fewer megawatt hours than actually needed to “service all the interconnection requests from cryptocurrency operations in 2023.”
Conifex retaliates: Missed economic growth
Conifex pointed out in a statement to the press that the continued ban on crypto mining was a missed opportunity for British Columbia. If it had not been banned, the province could have improved energy affordability, achieved higher and more inclusive economic growth, sped up technological innovation, and fortified the grid’s reliability and resiliency.
British Columbia hosts Ocean Falls Technology and a few other zero-carbon footprint crypto mining projects that exist off the grid. This project uses “orphaned” hydroelectric plant power in an abandoned mining town.
