Environmental groups on Friday appealed the New York Public Service Commission’s approval of a cryptocurrency miner’s purchase of a gas-fired power plant to the Supreme Court in Albany County.

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York and the Sierra Club argue that the PSC did not weigh the impact of its decision on greenhouse gas emissions and disadvantaged communities.

The PSC voted Sept. 15 to allow a subsidiary of Digihost Technology to buy the 60-MW Fortistar North Tonawanda peaker plant, where the Canadian company had already begun crypto mining operations. FERC in December also signed off on the sale. (See FERC OKs Sale of NY Power Plant to Crypto Miner.)

Earthjustice filed the petition on behalf of the two environmental groups. New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the groups assert, allows deviation from greenhouse gas-reduction mandates only with justification — and not at all, if the deviation would disproportionately burden disadvantaged communities, such as North Tonawanda.

By ramping the Fortistar plant up from a sporadically used peaker to a continuously running crypto miner, the sale would increase emissions without justification and negatively impact nearby residents, Earthjustice argued.

The argument strikes at the Wallkill Presumption, a state policy in place since the early 1990s by which the PSC undertakes only reduced review of ownership transfers if it determines there will be no monopolistic or anticompetitive result.

The PSC said environmental concerns were beyond the scope of its initial, limited review of the proposed Fortistar sale; it could look only at whether the transaction would create an opportunity to exercise horizontal or vertical market power or create potential to harm ratepayers. There would be no such impact, six of the seven commissioners said, and therefore the PSC would not undertake an expanded review.

FERC also found no impact on horizontal or vertical competition, no adverse impact on rates, no impairment of regulation and no cross-subsidization.

Cryptocurrency mining has been under fire in New York for the carbon footprint of its huge electrical demand, and the state recently placed a two-year moratorium on permits for carbon-fueled operations. That first-in-the-nation move does not halt existing operations. (See NY Slaps Moratorium on Certain Crypto Mining Permits.)

The crypto operation at the Fortistar plant has been the target of noise and environmental complaints, although it also has supporters, as do other mining operations in the economically stagnant upstate region.

In regulatory filings, Digihost said there would be no change in the day-to-day operations after the purchase. The same company running it under contract since 2002 would continue to operate it, and it would sell whatever electricity it does not use on site on the wholesale power market.

In response to critical comments during the state review — including by Sierra Club and the Clean Air Coalition — Digihost said it intended to convert the plant to run on renewable natural gas and then hydrogen. It said this would make it entirely powered by zero-emissions sources by 2025 and thereby compliant with New York’s increasingly stringent climate protection laws.

The environmental groups are seeking to have PSC’s Sept. 15 approval vacated and for payment of court costs for bringing the action.

“The Public Service Commission can no longer ignore the impacts of its decisions, especially when they run counter to public benefit and endanger the air quality for communities already burdened with a disproportionate amount of pollution,” Roger Downs, conservation director for the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, said in a news release Friday. “Allowing a failing gas-fired power plant to be acquired and revived by an energy-hungry crypto mine, without considering the environmental impacts, runs counter to the intent of the climate law and the justice it seeks to advance.”

“New York’s landmark climate law means that agencies can’t ignore the climate and environmental justice consequences of their decisions,” said Dror Ladin, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “We’re calling on the court to hold agencies accountable and ensure that cryptocurrency miners don’t get a free pass to heat our planet and damage our communities.”