BC Hydro, a state-owned electric utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has suspended new cryptocurrency mining electricity connection requests for 18 months “to support the province’s climate action and economic goals.” “Cryptocurrency mining consumes massive amounts of electricity to run and cool banks of high-powered computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while creating very few jobs in the local economy,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation, in a media release Wednesday. The suspension would affect cryptocurrency miners who have yet to connect to the grid as well as those who are in the process of doing so.
