The Power Info 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 businesses as defendants.
The EIA confirmed that the survey has been paused in a statement:
“EIA is not going to implement any requirement to file Kind EIA-862 nor search or impose any fines, penalties, or different antagonistic penalties based mostly on a failure to reply to the survey by March 22, 2024.”
The company can even sequester any information that it has collected and can chorus from utilizing it till the identical information, in response to 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 will likely be a discover stating there are [four] extra weeks reprieve.”
Knowledge assortment issues
Republican Congressman Tom Emmer not too long ago raised issues 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 data assortment request with no remark interval by demonstrating that mining is prone to trigger public hurt. He added:
“Bitcoin mining shouldn’t be a risk to public security. Interval.”
Riot and the Texas Blockchain Council’s lawsuit depends on the same argument, as one part of their grievance 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 steered focusing on mining companies with vitality limitation actions and legal guidelines.
The EIA, for its half, is anxious that Bitcoin mining might result in elevated vitality consumption throughout excessive vitality demand durations, together with throughout chilly climate.
The workplace initially aimed to gather information 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 led to July.
