Michael Hill

Associated Press

Smokestacks from the Greenidge Generation power plant tower above nearby homes, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, in Dresden, N.Y.

Bitcoin-Mining Power Plant Raises Ire of Environmentalists

They fear a wave of resurrected fossil-fuel plants pumping out greenhouse gases.

An unmodified, open-pollinated American chestnut bur grows on a tree at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science & Forestry Lafayette Road Experiment Station in Syracuse, NY on Sept. 30, 2019.

US to Consider Genetically Altered Tree

In a feat of genetic engineering, about half the chestnuts collected at this college experiment station feature a gene that provides resistance to blight.

In this June 5, 2019 photo, Natural Power Group co-owner Sarah Bower-Terbush stands in front of a power turbine at the company's hydroelectric site in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. She and her husband sell renewable power to local customers from three hydroelectric sites they operate in the Hudson Valley. Customers say they like investing their money locally in clean power.

Hydro Plants Serve Neighbors

The idea is similar to farm-to-table, except for electricity instead of food.

In this June 10, 2011 file photo, crews dredge the Hudson River in Fort Edward, N.Y. The work is part of a project on the upper-Hudson to clean up PCBs released by General Electric decades ago. The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to make an announcement Thursday, April 11, 2019, on GE's $1.7 billion Hudson River cleanup.

EPA Says GE's Cleanup Complete

The decision triggered condemnation from officials who say contaminant levels from its industrial pollution remain too high.

Former Iraqi refugee Majid Al Lessa works on a lighting fixture on the assembly floor of LiteLab, which employs refugees, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, in Buffalo, N.Y. Thousands of refugees have settled in Buffalo in recent years even as others have left the city. Some locals worry that the Trump administration's policies reducing the numbers of new arrivals will harm the city's economy.

AP: Refugee Limits Slowing Growth of Shrinking Cities

Cities like Buffalo had been locked in a long, losing struggle to keep people from leaving for places with less snow and more jobs. Enter refugees and immigrants.

In this Wednesday, May 16, 2018 photo, tunnel workers push equipment up a rail track to a machine boring a 2.5-mile bypass tunnel for the Delaware Aqueduct, in Marlboro, N.Y. Hard-hat workers are toiling deep underground, 55 stories beneath the Hudson River, to eliminate gushing leaks in an aging tunnel that carries half the city's water supply over 85 miles from Catskill Mountain reservoirs.

Massive Leak 55 Stories Underground

Using a cylindrical, space-rocket-size borer, they are carving through solid rock to create a 2.5-mile bypass tunnel around the worst of the leaks.

In this March 9, 2018 image taken from video, Patrick Alexander, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, uses a spectrometer to measure light radiating off a snowpack in Highmount, N.Y. Researchers are visiting New York’s Catskill Mountains this winter to study details about how snowflakes fall and how they evolve once they settle on the ground.

Snowflake Hunters

Capturing snowflakes isn't as easy as sticking out your tongue.

In this Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, photo, Jonathan Cypert stands in front of his wife's 2017 Subaru Impreza, in Virginia, that he purchased with bitcoins he acquired in 2011. Cypert sees his bitcoin cache as a nest egg to tide him over after he retires from the military.

How to Use Bitcoin to Buy a Subaru

The anatomy of a cryptocurrency transaction.

In this Thursday, April 6, 2017 photo, Sunita Halasz shows how she charges her electric car at her home in Saranac Lake, N.Y. Halasz has tips for 'driving electric' along the lonely New York Adirondack Mountains roads: learn where the charging stations are, bring food and books for the kids during three-hour recharges, use the defroster in 10-second bursts since it sucks battery life, and have a backup plan.

Rural Drivers Have Electric 'Range Anxiety'

Charging stations are often few and far between in rural areas.

In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, a handful of snow-melting road salt mined by the American Rock Salt Co. is photographed at a service station in Williamsville, N.Y.

Salt Mining is a Serious Business

Life inside the nation's most productive salt mine.

A man works out the imperfections on an Oscar statuette at the Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry in Rock Tavern, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017.

Foundry Makes Oscar Statues

How Oscar goes from a small town in upstate New York to center stage in Hollywood.

In this Sept. 27, 2016 photo, Ecovative Design co-founders Eben Bayer, left, and Gavin McIntyre pose in Green Island, N.Y. Ecovative Design is a business staking its growth on mycelium, the thread-like 'roots' of mushrooms. The mycelium grows around small pieces of stalks and stems to create a bound-together material that can be molded into soft packaging for glassware or pressed into the boards used for the footstools they recently began selling.

Spongy Stool Cushions Manufactured Using Fungus

Finally, a fitting fabrication for the fun guy.