The US Department of Energy must temporarily suspend an emergency investigation aimed at measuring crypto mining companies’ power consumption, a Texas judge has ruled.
Judge Alan Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas’ Waco Division issued a temporary restraining order Friday after the Texas Blockchain Council and Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms sued the Department of Energy this week last. call the survey is a product of “botched government process.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) — a statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy — announcement Earlier this month, it reportedly began investigating crypto mining companies following an “urgent request for data collection,” citing the increase in the price of bitcoin over the past few months as evidence of the request emergency.
The EIA argued that as cryptocurrency mining has grown, concerns have grown about the effects it could have on the U.S. electric power industry.
The Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms countered by saying mining companies would be “irreparably harmed if they were forced to disclose confidential, sensitive, and proprietary information to the EIA, which had no legal authority to request or collect.”
Judge Albright criticized the Energy Department’s order and said the investigation was approved under an emergency provision of the Paperwork Reduction Act, which allows executive agencies to bypass certain stages such as notice and comment periods.
“Such emergency requests are appropriate only if the head of the agency has determined that public harm is reasonably likely to result if normal permitting procedures are followed,” the judge said. “The Court finds that Plaintiffs will likely succeed in demonstrating that the facts alleged by Defendants to support an emergency request fall far short of justifying such action.”
In response to the judge’s order, the EIA said it would not seek to impose fines, penalties or other consequences on companies that fail to respond to the investigation until March 22, in a article on Friday on X. The EIA declined to comment on next steps.
Texas Blockchain Council President Lee Bratcher said the judge’s ruling confirmed that the EIA and Department of Energy “failed to comply with the statutes.”
“It is crucial that federal agencies operate within their designated authority rather than attacking industries that have fallen out of favor with the ruling administration,” Bratcher said in an emailed statement to The Block .
Time gaps
In the initial complaint, members of the Texas Blockchain Council, including Riot, said the investigation would take “multiple employees at each company each month,” although the EIA said it would only take half an hour each months, according to the complaint. .
The court disagreed with the EIA, calling the estimated 30-minute time frame for responding to the survey “grossly inaccurate, if not grossly misleading.”
A audience to discuss a preliminary injunction will take place Wednesday.
Lawmakers weigh in
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., called the investigation an abuse of power and sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget last week about its decision to authorize the EIA investigation.
Emmer responded to the temporary restraining order in a job on X Friday.
“Great news! The Energy Information Administration is reversing its ’emergency’ request for Bitcoin miners to share proprietary information,” Emmer said. “We rejected this administration’s abuse of emergency power, and common sense prevailed.”
Other lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., have expressed concerns about crypto mining companies’ energy use and have sent letters last year, to six crypto mining companies to ask them about their operations.
“The extraordinarily high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining could undermine our hard work to combat the climate crisis – not to mention the harmful impacts of cryptomining on the local environment and electricity prices. We need more information about the operations of these cryptomining companies to understand the full extent of the consequences on our environment and local communities,” Warren said in a statement in January 2022.
Correction: A date was corrected in the Quick Take above
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