CRYPTO
An off-shore, special interest corporation, funded largely by a crypto-billionaire is trying to buy NY-22.
~$500K has flooded into the NY-22 Democratic Primary through tv commercials and mailers in support of Sarah's opponent, Conole.
Sarah knows the environmental impacts of crypt-operations and has openly stated her position against it.
An off-shore, special interest corporation, funded largely by a crypto-billionaire is trying to buy NY-22.
~$500K has flooded into the NY-22 Democratic Primary through tv commercials and mailers in support of Sarah's opponent, Conole.
Sarah knows the environmental impacts of crypt-operations and has openly stated her position against it.
THE GOAL OF THIS DARK MONEY
TO BUY THIS CONGRESSIONAL SEAT
SILENCE THE VOICE OF THE CNY VOTERS
USE CONOLE TO DO THEIR BIDDING IN D.C.
Conole publicly states he supports overturning Citizens United, removing special interest, SuperPAC, and dark money from politics, yet continues to court their funding support (over $500K in tv ads and mailers).
Conole is getting around Federal Election Law by allowing SuperPAC dark money into this election through a practice known as 'red boxing'
Conole's red box from his website
Do the words look familiar? That’s because all the mailers paid for SuperPAC Protect Our Future use this narrative on them.
Crypto-operations are so damaging to the environment, China banned them!
Some articles Sarah has released and other material to familiarize yourself with the role of crypto in NY-22
Thursday, Aug 4, 2022
Super PACs are a Crisis For Democracy and a NY-22 Issue: Here’s Why
What is the most immediate issue you would prioritize if elected to Congress?
That’s what the moderator asked me at an Indivisible Mohawk Valley NY-22 Democratic candidate forum in Utica on July 27.
I answered, unequivocally, with campaign finance reform. And here’s why: reforming our campaign finance system is the most important long-term solution to restoring trust in our elected officials and saving our democracy. Campaign finance reform has also become an important issue in our district’s (NY-22’s) Democratic primary for Congress: an off-shore, special interest Super PAC backed by a cryptocurrency billionaire has spent over $400,000 in support of my primary opponent, Francis Conole.
This Super PAC appears to be flooding money into this race in an attempt to buy this seat, increase their special interest voice in D.C, and silence the voice of Central New Yorkers. Every time you see a TV commercial, mailer, or radio ad in support of Francis Conole, you must understand much of this messaging was bought and paid for by this Super PAC. You must ask yourself why.
Super PACs allow the ultra wealthy and big special interests to spend unlimited amounts influencing voters or, worse, candidates. And that has consequences for voter trust and participation as two in three Americans say they trust government less because they say “big donors to Super PACs have more influence than the average voter.” And one in four Americans say “they are less likely to vote because big donors to Super PACs have so much more influ ence over elected officials than average Americans.”
Those are alarming numbers. And they should inspire a call to action to eliminate the use of Super PACs in our elections for those who aspire to serve in Congress.
Super PAC Funding - An Issue in the NY-22 Democratic Primary Race
Right now, large amounts of outside Super PAC money is currently deployed to influence our district’s voters.
“Protect Our Future” is a Super PAC backed financially almost entirely by a Bahamas-based, crypto billionaire and the PAC has poured over $400k into TV ads and mailers for the campaign of Francis Conole, my primary opponent.
This calls into question Mr. Conole’s commitment to campaign finance reform for two reasons:
1) Mr. Conole has solicited super PAC money through a campaign finance loophole practice called “red-boxing.” Red-boxing is when candidates script ads for Super PACs by posting their scripts inside “red boxes” on pages that these groups monitor, as Mr. Conole has done here on his website. The New York Times, in an article on red-boxing, has stated this practice makes a “mockery of our campaign finance laws.”
2) Mr. Conole, on his website, calls for reforming our campaign finance system and not “standing by” while “special interest influence continues to hurt our community and middle class. Protect Our Future’s stated public goal is to back candidates who will focus on pandemic preparedness, however the motivations of a cryptocurrency billionaire spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send someone to Congress, where cryptocurrency will face federal scrutiny, should be concerning to Central New Yorkers. Cryptocurrency mining is known to have a harmful impact on the environment and could be a disaster for our clean lakes and watersheds. I have researched this issue and have taken a stand, Mr. Conole has not.
Elect Members of Congress Who Are Serious About Campaign Finance Reform
If voters are serious about campaign finance reform as a long-term solution to save our democracy, then they must elect candidates who are also serious about reducing and ultimately eliminating super PAC money from our elections. That’s why, in Congress, I would advocate and vote for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. The 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opened the door for special interest groups to spend unlimited sums of money on elections through super PACS. A constitutional amendment would reverse this decision and return power to the people.
And finally, as candidates, we can’t just talk about ending big money in our elections while actively soliciting it through loopholes. Democratic voters in the 22nd District have a choice to elect a Congressional representative that will stand by their values this Election Day, August 23rd.
As a veteran who has served our country and is currently serving my community as an elected town councilor - and as a mother to two children working in environmental policy - protecting our democracy and future is personal to me.
Please get out to vote, and get-out-the-vote.
Sincerely,
Sarah Klee Hood
Cryptocurrency mining must be addressed to protect our environment
As a town councilor, Sarah is uniquely qualified to take this issue to the federal level and fight for our communities against crypto-firms moving in under the guise of economic development
HOW TO GET THERE
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Government must recognize cryptocurrency mining as a bad actor in the fight to combat climate change. And then must take sweeping action to create policy ending crypto-operations in our communities.
Let’s breakdown a few terms:
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CRYPTOCURRENCY is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.
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CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING is the act of creating new ‘coins’ (virtually) through very complex mathematical calculations. The calculations are extremely complex and require very large calculators. The calculators are computers, and they require many servers to compute the equations.
How does crypto-mining affect our local environment and ecosystem:
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When a cryptocurrency mining operation moves to town, a local community should expect the following:
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Increased energy demands on the electric gird (to power the computers running the calculations)
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Increased water temperature of the lake (the water is cycled through the plant to cool the computers running the calculations, and then the water is deposited back into the lake at a warmer temperature than it entered)
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Changed behavior of the local ecosystem due to the increased water of the lake
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Increased electronic waste estimated at 33,000 tons per year (the computer parts are used and discarded at an alarming rate)
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Cryptocurrency Mining in Upstate New York
March 24, 2022
What is cryptocurrency? A digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Virtual in this case means non-tangible, you do not place cryptocurrency in a wallet, it lives within the virtual (digital) world. It is neither controlled nor regulated by the government and therefore is unregulated.
What is cryptocurrency mining? The act of creating new ‘coins’ (virtually) is called mining and completed through very complex mathematical calculations. The calculations are extremely complex and require very large calculators. The calculators are computers, and they require many servers (the ‘thinking’ part of the computer) to compute the equations.
As we face the existential crisis of climate change I am not willing to forsake the future of our planet, our communities, or our natural resources for cryptocurrency mining or any other activity that contributes to the further detriment of our environment.
Our region is attractive to cryptocurrency mining companies because of the low-cost hydropower, cheap land, and underused transmission infrastructure (former energy plants). And the attractiveness of our region is the exact reason we must re-examine our regulations and continue to move towards policies and operations that support our state and federal climate goals and initiatives.
Cryptocurrency mining is a relatively new field that does not benefit from years of environmental study or data and because of this I support, at a minimum, the proposed two-year moratorium, which would effectively ban proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining while requiring the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) the opportunity to conduct a study of the environmental impacts of both existing and proposed cryptocurrency mining operations. While the ban is currently proposed for New York, I believe we must look at this situation through a wider lens and bring this effort national.
The environmental study must be comprehensive and investigate the impacts of the use of power plants, the fossil fuel industry, the electrical grid stress, and the role of cryptocurrency mining within the surrounding ecosystem, including but not limited to natural, social, and economic environments. For too long, regulations have myopically looked only to the impacts on natural ecosystems, disregarding the intersection of social and equity-based implications.
Identified areas of concern surrounding established cryptocurrency mining operations are outlined below and in my opinion, provide enough evidence of detriment to the local environment without a formal environmental impact study.
Changes to the natural ecosystems surrounding the bodies of water and environment where cryptocurrency mining operations occur have been recorded. Current research by Columbia Climate School found the Greenidge Generation plant in Dresden, NY routinely cycles water through its plant and back into Lake Seneca at a range of 30-50 degrees Fahrenheit above natural lake temperatures, endangering the wildlife and natural ecosystems.
Additionally, increased physical waste from the computers, graphics cards, purpose-built ASIC rigs, and other electronic components used in cryptocurrency mining must be accounted for. Electronic waste is estimated at up to 30,000 tons per year, per site.
The electric power requirements required to generate the energy for cryptocurrency mining adds to the already taxed energy grid and if the mining is using fossil fuels, the operation is moving the state and national further from its energy independence and carbon reduction goals.
As a Congressional Candidate with a federal purview, I will take an active role in regulating and banning, if necessary, cryptocurrency “proof of work” mining operations and any other crypto-related operations that do not align with New York State’s climate goals in addition to developing national regulations, as we continue to battle climate change and the existential threat it poses to our existence.
Sources:
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/09/20/bitcoins-impacts-on-climate-and-the-environment