U.S. DOE Halts Survey of Crypto Mining Energy Use After Lawsuit From Riot and Texas Blockchain Council: Report

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is reportedly stopping its survey on crypto mining energy use after being sued by two firms in the industry.

According to a new report by Reuters, the DOE has agreed to temporarily halt its probe of how much energy is used for crypto mining after Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Riot and the Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) filed a lawsuit against it.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) – the statistical branch of the DOE – says it will pause its data-gathering program nearly a month after starting, according to the report.

In the court filing, Riot and the Texas Blockchain Council say that the DOE’s efforts to collect energy data are “unlawful.”

Furthermore, the plaintiffs allege that the EIA is threatening them with criminal fines and civil penalties if they do not comply with the data-collecting survey.

“This is a case about sloppy government process, contrived and self-inflicted urgency and invasive government data collection.

On January 24th, 2024, Defendant EIA requested ‘emergency’ review and clearance from OMB (Office of Management and Budget) of a planned collection of proprietary energy information from companies that are engaged in cryptocurrency mining…

OMB approved the request two days after receiving it from EIA. But in doing so, both EIA and OMB violated the Paperwork Reduction Act and its implementing regulations. They also acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Despite these failures, EIA has moved forward with its information collection and is demanding – under the explicit threat of criminal fines and civil penalties – that certain companies, including Riot and many other TBC members, reply to the survey no later than February 23rd, 2024.”

The probe was initially announced earlier this month. At the time, Joe DeCarolis, the EIA’s Administrator, said that the government was interested in identifying areas of growth in terms of mining and finding out the energy ramifications of mining digital assets.

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