Energy Information Administration Drops Emergency Survey of Bitcoin Miners

According to Blockworks, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is dropping its emergency survey of bitcoin miners, following a temporary restraining order granted to the Texas Blockchain Council, Riot Platforms, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and the National Civil Liberties Alliance. The EIA must now undergo the proper notice and comment procedure mandated by law before surveying cryptocurrency miners in the future. The EIA will destroy any information it has already received in response to the survey sent out to bitcoin miners across the US and will publish a Federal Register notice of the proposed collection of information, replacing the emergency notice issued in early February. The complaint, filed in Texas last week, argued that Riot and other miners would be immediately and irreparably harmed by being forced to divulge confidential, sensitive, and proprietary information to the EIA. The survey notice was sent out at the end of January, requiring miners to respond with details related to their energy use. The Office of Management and Budget approved the survey request on Jan. 26, recognizing that the emergency collection was experimental and provisional. The survey was pursued after parts of the US faced a brutal winter, and the EIA felt a sense of urgency to generate credible data that would provide insight into the unfolding issue. The EIA and Texas Blockchain Council have not yet commented on the matter.