Among those complaining was Thomas Recny, the chief financial officer of one of city’s biggest employers, Mold-Rite Plastics. Mr. Recny said his company’s electric bills were about $60,000 higher than normal for January and February, an unforeseen increase of about 30 percent.Mr. Recny asked why an enterprise that required only a few people to run it should be able to drive up the operating costs of a company that employed about 500.“The only reason they’re here is this unusually inexpensive rate for power,” Mr. Recny said. “But with two guys, they can consume more electricity than a hospital.”

Mr. Leary showed up there two years ago, before Bitcoin had fully registered in the popular consciousness, and set up shop in an industrial park. Coinmint filled a small space with servers built for the singular task of creating cryptocurrency, running them nonstop. Each server, or miner, draws as much as 1.5 kilowatts, or about twice as much as a typical refrigerator.

As the new policies of FERC 2222 begin to take effect over the coming year, CleanSpark expects to be uniquely positioned to benefit from the implementation of the regulation using its GridFabric applications and other technologies to maximize market opportunities.  

CleanSpark, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK)("CleanSpark" or the "Company"), an advanced software and controls technology solutions company, focused on solving modern energy challenges, today announced it has agreed to acquire ATL Data Centers, LLC ("ATL") for up to $19.4 million in shares of the Company's common stock.  

Yet there I’ve given up the game: With the exception of — perhaps — a few immutable characteristics, you are not something you discover one day through trial and error and interior spelunking; you are something that is constantly in the process of becoming, the invention of endless revolutions. You never know who you are, because who you are is always changing.

When I got pregnant, my husband was a fledgling attorney and I was a greenhorn journalist; a big night for us entailed walking to the local Popeyes to pick up a box of biscuits and a couple tubs of red beans and rice. Our basement apartment had orange and yellow walls, and a single window-mounted air-conditioner with a permanent death rattle. In my memory it is always summer there, because every day passed with that languor of summer, the thrill of limitless possibility softened by a sense of no particular hurry. We both knew we were still waiting to become who we would be. This was all prelude.

Higher education also correlates with relatively delayed birth. A 2012 Pew survey found that while 62 percent of women with a high school diploma had given birth by the age of 25, only 18 percent of women with master’s degrees or higher had done the same. In fact, a solid 20 percent of master’s degree holders celebrated their first babies at 35 or older. Unsurprisingly, these numbers track with household income. As of 2018, more than half of women living on less than $25,000 per year between the ages of 40 and 45 report having given birth by the age of 25; among women banking $100,000 or more, the share was a touch over 30 percent.

Weather conditions — particularly Texas’ triple-digit summers — are a huge factor in predicting demand, since about half of Texas’ peak electricity use comes from air conditioning. ERCOT expects record-breaking electricity use again in summer 2020, even after the economic impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but anticipates the state will have enough capacity to meet expected demand under normal conditions.

In the same period, our energy consumption rose by 20 percent. According to ERCOT, much of this growth can be attributed to new industrial facilities along the coast near Houston, as well as oil and gas activities in the Permian Basin. ERCOT’s most recent forecasts indicate that Texas’ electricity demands will continue to rise, although the pandemic and recession may alter consumption.

Texas’ fuel mix has changed considerably in the past decade. In 2009, coal-fired plants generated nearly 37 percent of the state’s electricity while wind provided about 6 percent. Since then, three Texas coal-fired plants have closed and the use of wind power has more than quadrupled, as more transmission lines bringing electricity from remote wind farms to urban market centers came online.

I build a tower with our daughter. We paint a picture. Adrian sends me photos and videos from H-E-B, a shivering line wrapping around the store. No fresh produce, no water, no milk, no eggs, and after a year of careful quarantining, no social distancing. I am frantic beneath my skin, terrified of the night to come. I nurse the baby and hold his little chapped pink fingers, and my shallow breathing deepens as heat transfers from my body to his and his hands warm in mine. I think, At least this is something I can do. Outside, I hear sirens.“Are you scared?” my daughter asks on Wednesday. Tangled chestnut curls—fourth day now without a bath—fall into her eyes.“No, I’m not scared,” I lie.She tilts her head, smiles. “Say yes,” she prompts.I laugh. “Okay. Yes, I’m scared.”It’s daytime, but she twists the flashlight on, a pool of golden light at her feet. On one side of her, a rideable plastic bus. On the other, a blue rubber horse.She grins. “Don’t be scared. We are the rescue team!”

Diverse teams could exploit a wider array of investment opportunities by harnessing the heterogeneous experiences and skill sets of their team members. This should translate into superior investment returns that are less susceptible to fund-level capacity constraints. Moreover, by working alongside other managers from different backgrounds, fund managers could become more aware of their own biases and entrenched ways of thinking. Therefore, diverse teams could avoid some of the costly behavioral biases that afflict other teams. Similarly, members of a heterogeneous team could more effectively serve as checks and balances for each other, which should engender prudent risk management and lower operational risk. 

FIRST IN HUDDLE: Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), chairman of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will introduce their bills requiring background checks on all firearm sales.The pair has introduced the bills before, but this year they’re hopeful Democratic control of the House, Senate and White House will put them over the edge. Still, it’ll be tough to secure the 10 needed Republican votes in the Senate to get it passed. HR 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, was first introduced in January 2019 and passed the House the next month. Senate Republicans didn’t bring it up for a vote.Murphy told POLITICO recently that he was waiting to see a White House plan to curb gun violence before he introduced the bill. But the White House has no time tabletime for its proposal, which has angered some activists who hoped it would take on greater urgency with the new administration. “Joe Biden and hundreds of congressional candidates from both parties ran on the issue of background checks,” said Murphy (D-Conn). “This is the year to get this bill passed into law.”

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The city’s five chambers of commerce and the Partnership for New York City wrote to state lawmakers pressing them to oppose proposals to hike taxes on the rich. “We write to urge you to resist raising taxes that will slow economic recovery and further damage New York’s small business owners and workers who have already suffered so much during the pandemic,” wrote the heads of the chambers representing each boroughs and the Partnership, which represents business leaders. A coalition on the left is pushing several bills to raise taxes to close the state’s budget deficit, including a stock transfer tax, a tax on accumulated wealth, and an inheritance tax. “Advocates claim that their tax proposals will only impact the wealthy, Wall Street and big corporations, but this is just not true. The targets of ‘tax the rich’ schemes include many local entrepreneurs as well as the clients and customers that small businesses depend on,” the opponents wrote.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, who positioned himself as New York's micromanager-in-chief when the pandemic hit the state a year ago, finds himself immersed in the most damaging scandal of his decade-long tenure at the very moment when residents are looking to Albany for leadership on key issues ranging from vaccine distribution to a possible reopening of schools. The prospect of a distracted governor couldn't come at a worse time, some say, especially because of the logistics and coordination required to get shots into the arms of as many New Yorkers as quickly as possible. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican, said he is concerned that the crisis in the governor's office could have an impact on vaccine distribution. “This is a huge undertaking that needs the entire focus — and has needed the entire focus — of his office,” Picente said. “Are they in the bunker mentality? And if they are, that’s a dangerous place to be.” POLITICO’s Marie J. French, Michelle Bocanegra, and Shannon Young

“THE BIG STATE-RUN COVID-19 vaccination sites in New York City are administering shots to massive numbers of out-of-towners — rather than Big Apple residents, Mayor Bill de Blasio charged Monday. The mayor complained that a whopping 75 percent of the coronavirus shots administered at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens were given to people who live outside the city. More than 42 percent of the shots the state gave out at the Javits Center in Manhattan also went to non-city residents, Hizzoner griped at a press briefing. ‘The big sites don’t help us improve equity,’ the mayor said. ‘These sites do not perform like we’d like to see.’” New York Post’s Carl Campanile, Bernadette Hogan and Kate Sheehy

MAYORAL CANDIDATES WERE divided on Saturday over the push to wipe out rents that have piled up over the course of the Covid-19 crisis, while still committing to tenant-friendly appointments to a board that sets rates for rent-regulated units. Picking sides: Speaking at a forum hosted by a trio of tenant groups, Eric Adams, Scott Stringer, Carlos Menchaca and Dianne Morales each said New York should cancel rent and mortgage payments amid the economic damage brought on by the pandemic. POLITICO's Janaki Chadha

— FIRE THE PARLIAMENTARIAN. In 2001, when Senate Republicans didn’t get the reconciliation rulings they liked, they replaced him with a more pliable procedural referee. Who’s in favor: Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.), who tweeted, “Replace the parliamentarian. What’s a Democratic majority if we can’t pass our priority bills? This is unacceptable.”Who’s opposed: everyone to the right of the Squad.

(On that note: President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order today to review global supply chains in an effort to curb the shortage in semiconductors and other goods critical to pandemic recovery, my colleague Gavin Bade reports.)

The media onslaught continues. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the chorus of calls for a full investigation of Cuomo’s actions, as well as a rolling back of Cuomo’s emergency powers, an issue uniting the left and right. In the middle, Albany insiders may be hoping to get back to business as usual, as our Bill Mahoney and Anna report this morning, but the controversy doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon.

Our sources say the Senate parliamentarian will rule as soon as Tuesday on whether a nationwide boost to $15 an hour is allowed under reconciliation. Depending on how that goes, you can expect one of the following scenarios to play out:

“To have this happen now, in the middle of cancel culture, it feels like (the administration) didn’t really think it through on their own,” former Valparaiso professor Dot Nuechterlein said. “They just gave in to the pressure without talking it out. That’s part of what upsets people in my generation. We’re used to having free and frank conversation.”

“WHEN AMIT Bansal moved from Manhattan to the New York suburbs in July last year, he knew he would love the larger home, the roomy garden and — when the time came for children — the excellent local schools. What he was not prepared for was the peace and quiet. ‘Here, the only person I interact with in person all day is my wife. It’s challenging for me,’ says the 36-year-old venture capitalist, who works from his new home in Larchmont, a village in Westchester County, a 40-minute train ride from New York’s Grand Central Station. ‘The energy of [Manhattan], the randomness you get from nearly two million people: on every block unexpected interactions, different people from different walks of life. I thrive off that kind of energy. I very much miss that.’ In search of more space, greenery, a lower infection risk and a school system less vulnerable to Covid-triggered closures, New Yorkers like Bansal have been moving to the suburbs in droves since coronavirus struck the city in March 2020. But as growing demand for suburban living pushes up property prices and new arrivals confront its drawbacks — from isolation and higher property taxes to threatened commuter rail services — the boom in suburban home sales shows signs of slowing.” Financial Times’ Hugo Cox

“NEW YORK has exceeded 1 million total confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with the state surpassing the unwanted milestone Friday as the slow, steady climb in infections statewide continued. A total of 15,074 coronavirus tests processed Friday came back positive, pushing New York's total to 1,005,785 since March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office reported Saturday. The state's total includes only those cases confirmed positive by a diagnostic or rapid COVID-19 test. The actual number of coronavirus infections is likely much higher: Thousands of people have carried the virus but were never tested, either because they never showed symptoms or they were infected in the early days of the pandemic when tests were not as widely available. For weeks, New York has seen the coronavirus increase its spread incrementally, though the speed appears to have picked up in recent days.” USA Today Network’s Jon Campbell

FORMER REP. MAX ROSE will not run for mayor of New York City this year. The Staten Island Democrat bowed out on Sunday, several weeks after opening an account with the city's Campaign Finance Board and announcing that he was exploring a mayoral bid. “After serious consideration, I will not be running for Mayor of New York this year,” he said in a statement on Sunday. Rose, an Army veteran, had set his sights on City Hall after losing his bid for re-election to a second term in Congress, defeated by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican. But he faced a large field of rivals and some difficult electoral math: His base on Staten Island and in southern Brooklyn has some of the lowest turnouts in Democratic primaries. And the moderate positions he took in Congress may have put him at odds with key Democratic voting blocs elsewhere in the city. POLITICO’s Erin Durkin

I’M PLEXI AND I KNOW IT: Yesterday was an unconventional opening day — and not just because it took place on a Sunday. Because of the coronavirus, three members who were under quarantine orders (but had tested negative for Covid-19) were sworn in and voted from a plexiglass box that had been erected in the House gallery.Some lawmakers and officials were outraged by the move. Here’s Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee: “To build a structure like that, in the dark of night, to only protect the votes that Speaker Pelosi needs to get reelected Speaker, is shameful.” Meanwhile, Democrats stewed as some GOP lawmakers were also seen blatantly flouting rules on the House floor. At one point, a dispute broke out over mask policies in the chamber after several House Republicans, including firebrand freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), appeared not to wear their masks on the House floor for minutes at a time. More from Sarah, Heather, and yours truly: http://politi.co/3nfwjtf.

Keep in mind, each time a member of the House and Senate object, lawmakers will then meet in their individual chambers for up to two hours of debate … So, buckle up -- it could be a very long process.

THE GOP TURNS ON ITSELF: An intra-party battle is heating up within the Republican Party as two bitterly divided sides clash over the decision of at least 12 GOP senators, and dozens more House Republicans, to challenge the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win.The effort is snowballing as more Republicans join the Trump-guard led by Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) in the Senate and Rep. Mo Brooks (Ala.) in the House, while the old guard like Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is warning that this effort is jeopardizing the nation’s democratic values.With nearly a quarter of Senate Republicans taking part in the effort, against the urging of top GOP Senate leaders, it is also becoming clear just how much of a force Trump will be in the Republican Party even once he’s out of the White House. As one top House Republican told Huddle: “[Trump’s] the 800 pound gorilla.” They don’t want to cross him.The tensions have jumped so high that individual GOP senators are now directly headbutting one another, with Toomey accusing Cruz, Hawley and other Republicans of undermining the right to participate in direct elections and Hawley decrying Toomey’s arguments and “shameless personal attacks.”“I’m concerned about the division in America, that’s the biggest issue, but obviously this is not healthy for the Republican Party,” lamented Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). “This is bad for the country and bad for the party.” Burgess and Marianne with the story. http://politi.co/3odDYcZ

P-P-PROBLEMS — “Minority-owned companies waited months for loans, data shows,” AP: “Thousands of minority-owned small businesses were at the end of the line in the government’s coronavirus relief program as many struggled to find banks that would accept their applications or were disadvantaged by the terms of the program.“Data from the Paycheck Protection Program released Dec. 1 and analyzed by The Associated Press show that many minority owners desperate for a relief loan didn’t receive one until the PPP’s last few weeks while many more white business owners were able to get loans earlier in the program.”

THE VACCINE DISTRIBUTION — “Feds may cut Moderna vaccine doses in half so more people get shots, Warp Speed adviser says,” by Brianna Ehley: “The federal government is in talks with Moderna about giving half the recommended dose of the company's Covid-19 shot to speed up immunization efforts, the head of the Trump administration's vaccine rollout said on Sunday.“Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said there is evidence that two half doses in people between the ages of 18 and 55 gives “identical immune response” to the recommended one hundred micorogram dose, but said the final decision will rest with the FDA.” POLITICO

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH TOM COTTON: Late Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas announced he would not join a dozen of his Republican colleagues and object to the certification of electoral votes on Wednesday. Statement

WSJ ED BOARD CHEERS MCCONNELL’S DECISION: “Mr. McConnell tried to navigate this mudslide from Mar-a-Lago as best he could on Tuesday by announcing he’ll hold a vote on the checks and Mr. Trump’s other demands in the future. The bill could include the $2,000 checks, plus a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, plus an investigation of voter fraud. “This is the right policy choice, since the $2,000 checks are unnecessary and the truly needy have access to expanded jobless benefits, food stamps, child-care subsidies and much more. As for the politics, this is damage control. Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue quickly endorsed the $2,000 checks, and Mr. McConnell will take the heat for blocking them. The Majority Leader knows most GOP Senators oppose adding another $350 billion or more to the federal deficit while setting an awful precedent for the next recession.“We’ll see how this plays out in Georgia, but the fault here isn’t Mitch McConnell’s. The political damage to the GOP comes from Donald Trump, who is lashing out at all and sundry in defeat — no matter if it also helps to elect a Democratic Senate.”

HOLLYWOODLAND -- “Bob Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg In the Mix for Biden Ambassadorship Roles,” by The Hollywood Reporter’s Tatiana Siegel: “The Disney executive chairman, who once toyed with the idea of a 2020 presidential run, is at the top of President-elect Joe Biden’s wish list for a key ambassador post, namely China or the U.K.” THR

-- SMALL BUSINESS MONEY: $325 billion … PPP: $257 billion.

The Health and Human Services public education campaign — and its celebrity component — was conceived by Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary of health for public affairs and an ardent Trump loyalist, who went on extended medical leave in September after a bizarre and incendiary outburst on Facebook in which he accused federal government scientists working on the pandemic of “sedition” and warned of impending violence from left-wing “hit squads.”

The city shut down its school system for in-person learning after the average positive coronavirus test rate hit 3 percent, a trigger that came under heavy criticism from parents and elected officials when it forced the closures. Now de Blasio is abandoning that trigger, he announced Sunday, and will reopen many schools even though the infection rate has only worsened, to 3.9 percent on a seven-day average.

-- HIS ADMINISTRATION is not anywhere closer to allowing the BIDEN team to transition into power.-- HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY suggested the election is “driving” toward a JOE BIDEN victory. Republican senators were seen fist-bumping VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS on the Senate floor Tuesday, seemingly congratulating her for winning the election. -- ON TUESDAY NIGHT, TRUMP congratulated the Wayne County, Mich., Board of Canvassers for failing “to certify the election results.” Hours later, they certified the election result.

DONALD TRUMP is out of public view, exacting revenge on his political enemies, ranting about a stolen election and risking allies on Capitol Hill, who are starting to concede that he has lost.-- HE HAS HARDLY made a public appearance since losing the election. He has nothing on his public schedule today.-- HE CANCELED his Thanksgiving trip to Mar-a-Lago. CNN: “Trump remains bunkered in the White House as the world spins on”

THERE ARE NO CONVERSATIONS right now about another round of Covid relief. None. The White House is silent. The Hill is quiet. That means no new programs, no new money for Americans before the holiday season.BUT EQUALLY NOTABLY, a number of crucial provisions expire at the end of this year, which is 44 DAYS from now:THE PANDEMIC EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION, which gives 13 weeks of extra UI to those who have run out of options, ends. … THE PANDEMIC UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE -- used by gig workers -- runs out. …THE EVICTION MORATORIUM ends. … STATE AND LOCAL funding stops flowing. … 2020 REBATE CHECKS end, as does STUDENT LOAN forbearance. … SMALL BUSINESS debt relief ends. … CHARITABLE DEDUCTION LIMITS expire. … THE EXCLUSION of employer payments of student loans stops. … THE REFUNDABLE TAX CREDIT for required paid sick leave runs out. …THE CREDIT for family and sick leave for self-employed individuals ends. … THE PAYMENT DELAY for employer payroll taxes ends. … CHANGES on net operating losses end. This is on top of the 33 TAX PROVISIONS that end at the close of the year. List hereIN OTHER WORDS, a huge safety net for Americans is going to be yanked away at the end of 2020, and Congress isn’t preparing much of anything to keep people from plummeting.

But the socialist charge worked because in its policy essence it was true. House Democrats turned sharply leftward in the last two years as they indulged progressive priorities across the policy spectrum. They voted for huge new tax increases, vast new spending, a gradual end to fossil fuels, and the most radical labor agenda since 1935. The House didn’t vote to defund the police, but Member after Member indulged Black Lives Matter, which does want police budgets slashed. Max Rose, the Democrat from Staten Island, joined a BLM march that featured in a Republican attack ad. He lost. The problem isn’t the Democratic message; it’s the reality of their program. You can disguise your policies by not calling them “socialist,” but voters will still eventually figure out what those policies mean in practice. They know the Green New Deal means more expensive energy and an end to fracking. They know Mrs. Pelosi refused Mr. Trump’s offer of even $1.8 trillion in Covid relief as too little.

I don’t necessarily fault anyone for these generalizations—a lot of our life experiences are gendered, and it would be dishonest to try to deny the reality of many of them. But I don’t like that we force gender-based preconceptions onto people, let alone babies. I want to be a parent who allows my child to show themself to me. And yet I realize that while I may hope my child can determine their own place in the world, they will, no matter what, be faced with the undeniable constraints and constructions of gender before they can speak or, hell, even be born.

I’m scared of having a son too, although not in the same way. I’ve known far too many white men who move through the world unaware of their privilege, and I’ve been traumatized by many of my experiences with them. And boys too; it’s shocking to realize how early young boys gain a sense of entitlement—to girls’ bodies and to the world in general. I’m not scared of raising a “bad guy,” as many of the men I’ve known who abuse their power do so unintentionally. But I’m terrified of inadvertently cultivating the carelessness and the lack of awareness that are so convenient for men. It feels much more daunting to create an understanding of privilege in a child than to teach simple black-and-white morality. How do I raise a child who learns to like themself while also teaching them about their position of power in the world?

My friend who is the mother to a three-year-old boy tells me that she didn’t think she cared about gender until her doctor broke the news that she was having a son. She burst into tears in her office. “And then I continued to cry for a whole month,” she says matter-of-factly. After a difficult birth experience, she developed postpartum depression and decided that she resented her husband more than she’d ever imagined possible. She told me she particularly hated—and she made an actual, physical list that she kept in her journal, editing it daily—how peacefully he slept. “There is nothing worse than the undisturbed sleep of a white man in a patriarchal world.” She shakes her head. “It was hard to come to terms with the fact that I was bringing yet another white man into the world. But now I adore him and can’t imagine it any other way.” She also eventually learned to love her husband again. The sound of his perfect sleep next to her at night is now tolerable.

“I do worry a girl will have a lot to live up to as your daughter,” he replies. “That’s a lot of pressure.” I wince and think of my own mother and her tales of being homecoming queen, the way I knew the word jealous at the age of three (I pronounced it “jealoust,” telling my mother that her female colleagues were “just jealoust” of her), and the early understanding I had of how beauty could equate to power. I prayed for beauty, pinching my nose tightly on either side before falling asleep, willing it to stay small.

WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I tell friends that I’m pregnant, their first question after “Congratulations” is almost always “Do you know what you want?” We like to respond that we won’t know the gender until our child is 18 and that they’ll let us know then. Everyone laughs at this. There is a truth to our line, though, one that hints at possibilities that are much more complex than whatever genitalia our child might be born with: the truth that we ultimately have no idea who—rather than what—is growing inside my belly. Who will this person be? What kind of person will we become parents to? How will they change our lives and who we are? This is a wondrous and terrifying concept, one that renders us both helpless and humbled.

What does “in 10 years there won’t be a NYSE or a Nasdaq” mean? It means, roughly: Individual investors will not be able to buy stocks directly, only mutual funds. The securities laws that apply to public companies—laws about disclosure and proxy voting and so forth, laws that have existed in some form since the Great Depression—will no longer apply to any companies. (The laws against securities fraud will still apply, though.)I dunno, that could be interesting. I am not exactly betting on it, but it is a thing you could imagine, even a thing you could hope for. An unusual thing to hope for, maybe—“get rid of securities laws and individual investors”—but a coherent one.