1166344 - Tonawanda Tomorrow: A Model for Alternative Electricity Transition in the Rust Belt

Western New York (WNY) essentially no longer uses fossil fuel for generating its electricity within the NY State energy generation framework. Tonawanda Tomorrow is a community group of technical participants and average citizens working toward the goal of a cleaner environment, the restoration of its once-beautiful waterfront on the Niagara River, the retention of jobs through a just transition, and on environmental justice. A recent challenge facing Tonawanda Tomorrow is that developers are interested in taking advantage of decades old cheap hydroelectricity incentives, put in place to attract heavy industry and jobs, for the energy-intensive practice of bitcoin mining, currently responsible for a massive and growing demand for more power. While New York State is debating a three-year moratorium on bitcoin mining, Tonawanda Tomorrow is currently focused on banning it from the area, a battle they could easily lose to local developers. Estimates - if that happens - are that fossil power would be needed to make up the additional power needs, as currently experienced by residents of Seneca Lake, another upstate NY community where a formerly closed fossil fuel plant was re-fired to fuel a bitcoin mining operation. The move away from the fossil-based economy is now in full swing, and for each geography, the solutions will be different. ‘Tonawanda Tomorrow’ is a model of how a small rust belt community is working to complete the transition.