Texas Blockchain Council says it has a ‘strong legal case’ in mining survey suit

TBC President Lee Bratcher told Blockworks he’s “confident” about the Council’s case against the DOE

article-image

Tada Images/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms, alongside the New Civil Liberties Alliance, filed a suit last week against the Department of Energy.

The NCLA, TBC, and Riot were granted a 14-day temporary restraining order late Friday, blocking the DOE and the Energy Information Administration from requiring bitcoin mining companies to hand over information as part of an emergency survey the EIA announced earlier this year

Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, told Blockworks that the TBC remains “confident that we have a sound legal case.”

“We’re concerned that a benign agency like the Energy Information Administration would be politicized in this way, it doesn’t bode well for other industries that potentially could fall out of favor with the administration and power,” he added. 

The complaint, filed last week, said that miners would be “irreparably harmed” by the survey, which demanded “confidential, sensitive and proprietary information.”

“We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand,” Joe DeCarolis, administrator for the EIA, said in a statement last month.

Read more: Crypto miner ire over EIA survey bubbles over to the courtroom

The request, which was filed as an emergency order earlier this month, came after the cold snap that impacted parts of the US. 

“Given the emerging and rapidly changing nature of this issue and because EIA cannot quantitatively assess the likelihood of public harm, EIA felt a sense of urgency to generate credible data that would provide insight into this unfolding issue,” an EIA spokesperson told Blockworks back in early February. 

The NCLA, in a press release Friday, said that the EIA “appears to be responding to political pressure rather than a genuine ‘emergency’ implicating public harm.”

In the order granting the TRO, the court wrote that it believed that the plaintiffs are “likely” to show that the justification for the emergency order request fell “short.”

Before the order, the EIA — on its website and on X — clarified that it wouldn’t be enforcing the survey until March 22. 

Loading Tweet..

Bratcher told Blockworks that TBC is “in this [fight] for our members and the industry and have no inclination to back away from what we think is a very correct cause.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (6).png

Research

In recent months, a number of highly accretive developments were implemented across the protocol to improve fee capture, expand product functionality, and ultimately drive value accrual to the RUNE token, with more upgrades on the immediate horizon. These developments include hiking the minimum swap fee parameter to increase revenue, adding a Burn System Income Lever to reduce the RUNE supply, the addition of COSM-WASM smart contracting and IBC to enable an application layer, new chain integrations, and more.

article-image

A blockchain some thought dead in the water two years ago now feels cool

article-image

Former IRS agent and Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan will remain imprisoned in Nigeria’s Kuje prison

article-image

When Permissionless III wraps on Friday, there will be 26 days left until the 2024 presidential election

article-image

Plus, an update from the ground in Salt Lake City at Permissionless III

article-image

The US regulator accused the crypto market-making firm of acting as an unregistered dealer