US Department of Energy Announced an 'Emergency' Data Collection Initiative Targeting US Bitcoin Miners

• "Beginning next week, we will survey identified commercial cryptocurrency miners, which are required to respond with details related to their energy use. The Office of Management and Budget authorized the survey on January 26, 2024, as an emergency collection of data request," announced the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“We intend to continue to analyze and write about the energy implications of cryptocurrency mining activities in the United States. We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand,” said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis.

• The survey seeks to collect information such as how many facilities they operate, geographic coordinates of their individual operations, how much energy is dedicated to bitcoin mining at different energy suppliers, and even detailed information over their mining fleets.

• "We will also solicit public comment on the collection of cryptocurrency miners’ energy use data," the agency said.

"We estimate cryptomining activity to represent as much as 2.2% of U.S. electricity consumption. Furthermore, there is evidence that this electricity consumption is growing rapidly. For example, the hash rate, which represents the computational power of a network mining cryptocurrency and is directly proportional to electricity consumption, has doubled in the last year," was stated in supporting statement.

• "Due to the speed with which this activity has potentially disrupted the electric power industry, the time needed to request data collection will exceed the need to urgently collect this information."

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