The Federal Government Still Does Not Know How Much Electricity Crypto Mining Uses
In January 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration obtained emergency clearance from the Office of Management and Budget to collect electricity consumption data from cryptocurrency mining facilities. In February 2024, it issued a formal request for comments on extending the data collection. On March 1, 2024, it withdrew the effort entirely — the result of a legal challenge from Bitcoin mining companies and a negotiated settlement in which EIA agreed to destroy the data it had already gathered.
That sequence explains why electricity consumption estimates for the domestic cryptocurrency mining industry still range from 25 to 91 terawatt-hours per year. The industry’s resistance to disclosure is not incidental; it is a practiced and legally effective strategy for preventing regulators from establishing the empirical foundation needed to design policy. Without reliable consumption data, assessments of grid impact remain imprecise, rate-setting proceedings lack critical inputs, and environmental reviews proceed on estimates rather than measurements.
In March 2026, EIA announced three voluntary pilot field studies to evaluate energy consumption at data centers. The administrator of EIA, responding to a letter from Senators Hawley and Warren, stated that mandatory surveys would follow if the pilot studies yielded actionable data. That is a conditional commitment subject to industry cooperation, administrative continuity, and political will — none of which can be assumed.
In the 119th Congress, the Clean Cloud Act of 2025 and the Data Center Transparency Act both address data collection, the former by directing EPA and EIA to collect information from cryptomining facilities and their electricity suppliers, the latter by requiring EPA and EIA to report on water use, emissions, and energy consumption across data center operations broadly. Both bills are pending. The EIA’s 2024 retreat under legal pressure established a precedent that voluntary approaches will not survive determined opposition. Mandatory disclosure authority, with legal standing to enforce it, is what the gap actually requires.