Texas Bitcoin Miners Sue US Energy Department Over Data Usage Survey
- Lawsuit comes after the EIA began a mandatory survey
- Miners used up to 2.3% of the US power, agency estimates
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The Texas Blockchain Council, an industry association for Bitcoin miners including Riot Platforms Inc., is suing the US Department of Energy’s statistics unit over a mandatory survey on their power consumption.
The inquiry by the Energy Information Administration is “an unprecedented and illegal data collection demand” against the industry, the group said in a statement dated Feb. 22. Riot, one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the state, made $71 million last year, in part from prepurchasing electricity for its operations and selling some of it back to the grid for a premium amid power shortages.