Last Friday the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against three major Federal Government players. A few weeks ago it came out that the U.S. Government wanted to look into Bitcoin mining energy consumption and so three government entities, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tried to move quickly to do just that. Luckily for Bitcoin miners across the nation, the way that the government tried to rush this has failed.

In issuing the TRO the Judge highlighted the issues with how the survey the government wanted miners to complete was presented and how in particular the EIA misused its authority to have the energy survey approved. When the EIA sent out this survey they failed to do much beyond send it and say do this and do this now. There was no timetable to complete it and contrary to common government practices no compensation for the completion of this extra work. EIA has tried to say that the survey only takes 30 minutes to complete but Riot Platforms came with receipts showing the cost of compliance had already gone over 40 hours and the survey still was not done.

The result of a TRO is the first step in what I think will be a legal battle and is being done to maintain the status quo for right now. It is safe to assume that the government is going to appeal or try another move to get around the TRO but for now, until it expires on March 25 (it lasts 4 weeks) the EIA is not allowed to require miners to respond to the survey and if any miners have responded to it the EIA is not allowed to share any data that has been collected.

This was the first step of the fight against the survey and on Wednesday, February 28, the Court has scheduled another hearing. During this, the Court will hear from both sides and consider issuing a preliminary injunction against the survey and the actions that the agencies and Department have taken. If granted, and based on the Court's response in the TRO about the Texas Blockchain Council and Riot likely to win in Court, the survey would be completely sidelined as it currently stands. Yes, the Administration could try to pursue it again but for one it would have to follow the law that has been the initial basis of the TRO, and two they would likely run into issues of causing undue burden to companies with new regulations.