The US Energy Information Administration, also known as EIA, has agreed to stop its emergency survey of Bitcoin miners in order to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Texas Blockchain Council.
In a court document filed on March 1, the EIA was ordered to destroy all survey data it had already received or that it would receive in the future. It must also store or keep these data in a confidential manner until they are destroyed.
The controversial survey was designed to gather information on the energy consumption of miners. However, the industry responded with lawsuits that argued the survey would “irreparably harm” operations by forcing miners to divulge “confidential information.”
Agreement Terms
As part of the agreement, the EIA will publish a new notice in the Federal Register to restart the survey process from scratch — withdrawing and replacing a previous notice from Feb 9, which did not invite comment and feedback.
The new notice should allow for 60 days of comments, and then the EIA can conduct the survey in accordance with specific statutory or regulatory provisions.
The EIA will also consider any comments made in response to the February 9 notice as well as the new notice.
The EIA…
