The Sierra Club told a court that there is an urgent need for accurate insights into the impact of cryptocurrency miners on electricity demand, both under daily conditions and in situations of exceptionally high demand.
The Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms had argued that the survey was a product of “sloppy government process” and that the mining companies could be “irreparably harmed by being forced to divulge confidential, sensitive, and proprietary information.” A hearing to discuss a preliminary injunction was set for Wednesday, but was canceled, according to court documents.
“Their operations in Texas and across the country are driving higher energy prices and threatening grid reliability,” Bender said in a statement on Wednesday. “Following the devastating impact of Winter Storm Uri, which led to hundreds of deaths in Texas due to power failures, it’s particularly reprehensible for Texan cryptocurrency miners to obstruct basic efforts to gather essential data energy regulators need to deliver reliable, affordable power.”
The lawsuit’s beginnings
The Department of Energy is being sued after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) — a statistical and analytical agency within the department — announced earlier this month that it would begin surveying crypto mining firms following an “emergency collection of data request,” citing bitcoin’s increase in price over the past few months as evidence for that emergency request.
In response to the judge’s order to halt the survey, the EIA said it would not seek to impose fines, penalties or other consequences on companies for not responding to the survey through March 22.
“Delaying EIA’s access to this information for months risks not just grid operators’ ability to ensure electric reliability to residences and businesses, but prevents grid operators and federal and state regulators from having the information necessary to prevent the abuse of current market rules by cryptocurrency mining companies to charge individual ratepayers, collectively, tens of millions of dollars to prevent grid outages,” the Sierra Club said in its brief.
Preventing EIA from collecting data for months will increase the risk of rolling blackouts during intense weather events, the Sierra Club said.
“Because electrical reliability can be a matter of life or death, and because distorted demand can so heavily impact residential and small business customers’ finances, it’s essential that grid operators, utilities, federal and state regulators, and the public rapidly gain a better understanding of cryptocurrency facilities’ impacts on the system,” the organization said in the brief.
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