The Power Data Administration (EIA) paused the controversial survey of crypto mining companies on Feb. 23 following a lawsuit from members of the crypto mining sector.
Crypto mining firm Riot Platforms and the Texas Blockchain Council launched the lawsuit on Feb. 22. The case names the EIA, the Division of Power, the Workplace of Administration and Finances (OMB), and the heads of these businesses as defendants.
The EIA confirmed that the survey has been paused in a statement:
“EIA will not enforce any requirement to file Form EIA-862 nor seek or impose any fines, penalties, or other adverse consequences based on a failure to respond to the survey through March 22, 2024.”
The company can even sequester any knowledge that it has collected and can chorus from utilizing it till the identical knowledge, in accordance with the present discover.
An entry in the case docket equally confirms the survey pause, noting that the EIA will “take the survey down [and] there will be a notice stating there are [four] more weeks reprieve.”
Information assortment considerations
Republican Congressman Tom Emmer lately raised considerations over the gathering of information from crypto mining companies in a letter on Feb. 22.
He argued that the OMB may solely grant the EIA’s data assortment request with out a remark interval by demonstrating that mining is more likely to trigger public hurt. He added:
“Bitcoin mining is not a threat to public safety. Period.”
Riot and the Texas Blockchain Council’s lawsuit depends on an identical argument, as one part of their criticism states that the emergency approval and supposed public hurt are “facially absurd.”
The survey has been carefully linked with the Biden administration and the Democratic occasion. One part of the lawsuit explicitly acknowledges this, noting {that a} September 2022 assertion from the Biden Whitehouse particularly advised concentrating on mining companies with vitality limitation actions and legal guidelines.
The EIA, for its half, is worried that Bitcoin mining may result in elevated vitality consumption throughout excessive vitality demand durations, together with throughout chilly climate.
The workplace initially aimed to gather knowledge from 82 crypto-mining companies, and corporations that didn’t comply may have confronted $10,000 in every day fines till the survey interval resulted in July.
