During the latest SlateCast episode, President Lee Bratcher, Chairman of the Texas Blockchain Council, talked about the contentious emergency survey released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining. According to Bratcher’s explanation: The EIA hastily pushed through this emergency without proper notification and input. He explained that the survey requested confidential information and did not adhere to correct protocols, resulting in a lawsuit from the Texas Blockchain Council. There may have been political influence influencing the situation. Bratcher suggests that Senator Elizabeth Warren played a significant role in influencing the EIA’s choice to conduct the Bitcoin mining survey. Warren specifically requested the Secretary of Energy to investigate the energy consumption of Bitcoin and made it clear that she wanted the data before the next briefing. Bratcher believes that this political pressure caused the EIA to act improperly and unfairly, resulting in the lawsuit from the Texas Blockchain Council. While Warren’s intentions may have been reasonable in terms of understanding the environmental impact of Bitcoin, Bratcher argues that her demands did not consider the benefits and unfairly targeted Bitcoin miners. The focus should also be on future renewable energy usage. Bratcher thinks that Bitcoin mining will never solely depend on renewable energy, but he anticipates that in the future, there will likely be a combination of stranded or wasted gases used in the mix. He refers to projects that are currently diverting natural gas, which would typically be burned off, to power generators used for Bitcoin mining.