Victorious Outcome for Texas Blockchain Council and Riot against US Energy Authorities

The Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) and Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms have secured a favorable ruling from a United States District judge in their lawsuit against several U.S. energy officials.
As previously reported on Feb. 22, the TBC and Riot accused the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and their leaders of attempting to collect intrusive data from cryptocurrency miners.
According to a filing on Feb. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the TBC and Riot successfully convinced the judge that irreversible harm would occur without a temporary restraining order (TRO) against further data collection.
Consequently, the court implemented a TRO that prohibits the EIA from demanding crypto miners to respond to the survey and from sharing any data that has already been obtained from the survey.
The TBC and Riot argued that the potential damages include unrecoverable costs of complying with the survey, a credible threat of prosecution if they refuse to comply, and the disclosure of proprietary information that was requested.
There was also a disagreement regarding the time frame for miners to complete the survey, with no compensation provided.
While the EIA estimated that it would take approximately 30 minutes to complete, the court deemed this estimation to be “extremely inaccurate.”
Meanwhile, the TBC and Riot contested the estimate, stating that the cost of compliance so far has exceeded 40 hours.
Based on the evidence presented, the court concluded that TBC and Riot were likely to win the lawsuit. It further alleged that the EIA misused its authority to obtain approval for the emergency survey, a move that the court considered to be insufficient justification.
“The plaintiffs also demonstrate that they are likely to succeed on the merits. The survey was proposed and approved under an emergency provision of the PRA,” the filing stated.
The TRO is set to expire before March 25, and its purpose for the next four weeks is to “maintain the current situation.”