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 Funds (OMB), and the heads of these companies as defendants.
The EIA confirmed that the survey has been paused in a assertion:
“EIA is not going to implement any requirement to file Kind EIA-862 nor search or impose any fines, penalties, or different adversarial penalties primarily based on a failure to answer the survey via 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 keeping with the present discover.
An entry within the case docket equally confirms the survey pause, noting that the EIA will “take the survey down [and] there can be a discover stating there are [four] extra weeks reprieve.”
Information assortment considerations
Republican Congressman Tom Emmer just lately raised considerations over the gathering of knowledge from crypto mining companies in a letter on Feb. 22.
He argued that the OMB might solely grant the EIA’s info assortment request and not using a remark interval by demonstrating that mining is more likely to trigger public hurt. He added:
“Bitcoin mining will not be a risk to public security. Interval.”
Riot and the Texas Blockchain Council’s lawsuit depends on an identical argument, as one part of their grievance states that the emergency approval and supposed public hurt are “facially absurd.”
The survey has been intently linked with the Biden administration and the Democratic social gathering. One part of the lawsuit explicitly acknowledges this, noting {that a} September 2022 assertion from the Biden Whitehouse particularly instructed concentrating on mining companies with power limitation actions and legal guidelines.
The EIA, for its half, is worried that Bitcoin mining might result in elevated power consumption throughout excessive power demand durations, together with throughout chilly climate.
The workplace initially aimed to gather knowledge from 82 crypto-mining companies, and firms that didn’t comply might have confronted $10,000 in day by day fines till the survey interval resulted in July.
