Golden Finance reported that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) first attempted to investigate the energy use of cryptocurrency mining companies earlier this year, but was blocked by a lawsuit. Now the department is preparing to open the investigation again, but will first seek the opinions of cryptocurrency industry participants. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which oversees energy statistics and analysis, held a public webinar on Wednesday to listen to the opinions of interested members of the public, including crypto miners and industry participants, on how to develop such an investigation before the proposed rulemaking is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register. More than 100 participants participated. Lee Bratcher, chairman and founder of the Texas Blockchain Committee, suggested that the EIA also include traditional data centers in its investigation, rather than just limiting the information request to cryptocurrency-focused data centers. Jayson Browner, senior vice president of government affairs at Marathon Digital Holdings, also agreed with the suggestion, saying that if traditional data centers are excluded from the request, the industry will be "skeptical" of the investigation.