According to Cointelegraph: The Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) and Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms have won a critical judgment in a U.S. District court against several energy officials from the country. The lawsuit was aimed at the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and their leadership who sought invasive data collection from cryptocurrency miners.
As per the ruling made by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on February 23, the TBC and Riot convinced the court about the impending irreversible harm should a temporary restraining order (TRO) not be enforced against further data collection.
Consequently, the court issued a TRO preventing the EIA from forcing crypto miners to participate in the survey and from sharing any data already gleaned from it.
Both TBC and Riot contended that damages could include non-recoverable compliance costs, a credible threat of prosecution for non-compliance, and disclosures of proprietary information queried in the survey.
There arose a contention over the estimated time required to complete the survey, whereupon the EIA's approximation of 30 minutes was deemed "extremely inaccurate" by the court. TBC and Riot counterclaimed, stating their compliance efforts exceeded 40 hours.
From the provided evidence, the court established that TBC and Riot were likely to be victorious in the lawsuit. It further stated that the EIA misused its authority when it had the emergency survey approved—an action the court classified as wanting in justification.
The TRO would remain in effect until before March 25, 2023, intended to "preserve the status quo" during its tenure.