Senators Markey and Warren open congressional inquiry into ERCOT subsidies for Bitcoin miners; cite $9.5M Riot July 2022 payment exceeding Bitcoin revenue; project up to $170M in annual miner payouts

Opening

On October 12, 2022, eight members of Congress sent a formal inquiry letter to ERCOT opening an investigation into the grid operator’s curtailment and demand-response subsidy payments to cryptocurrency miners. The letter was led by Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), joined by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Representatives Al Green (D-TX), Katie Porter (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

What Happened / Key Facts

The triggering case: The lawmakers cited Riot Blockchain’s July 2022 heat wave earnings — the company made approximately $9.5 million from ERCOT’s demand-response curtailment program during that month, more than the $5.6 million it earned from actually selling Bitcoin. The ratio (curtailment payments > Bitcoin revenue) illustrated that the grid program had become a primary revenue source, not a supplementary one.

The $170 million projection: The letter stated that “one report found that in coming years, Texas may pay miners up to $170 million annually through these programs.” The source of this projection is not identified in the letter or in available reporting; the $170M figure should be treated as a cited-but-unattributed estimate, not a confirmed finding.

Scale claims: The letter stated that Texas hosted approximately 25% of U.S. Bitcoin mining, with ERCOT projecting 33 GW of crypto mining interconnection requests in the queue — a figure that, if realized, would dwarf any other industrial demand category.

Demands of ERCOT (deadline: October 31, 2022):

1. Current and projected cryptomining energy consumption data
2. Details on power purchasing and curtailment agreements with mining companies
3. Analysis of how mining’s energy use impacts electricity costs to consumers and small businesses

Status of inquiry: No published response from ERCOT or documented findings from the congressional inquiry were located in the available research record. Whether ERCOT responded, and what it provided, is a research gap.

Why This Event Matters

The Markey-Warren inquiry is the earliest federal-legislative documentation of the “ratepayers subsidize miners” concern in the ERCOT context. It established three claims that the subsequent 2023 Riot disclosures would validate at larger scale:

1. Curtailment payments can exceed Bitcoin mining revenue — confirmed when Riot earned $31.7M in curtailment credits vs. far lower Bitcoin revenue in August 2023.
2. The $170M annual projection was partially validated when Riot alone earned $71.2M in 2023 (suggesting a sector-wide total plausibly approaching that range, though multi-firm data is not publicly compiled).
3. The absence of authoritative usage data — which the inquiry’s data demands acknowledged — became the subject of federal regulatory action (the DOE EIA mandatory survey in January 2024, later blocked) and state action (Texas SB 1929 registration requirement).

Broader Context

The inquiry predates the 2023 legislative battles (SB 1751 failed in the Texas House) and the 2025 PUCT-vs.-AG transparency lawsuit. It marks the beginning of a sustained pattern of regulatory and legislative attempts to document and constrain the miner curtailment-subsidy mechanism — most of which, through 2025, were partially or fully blocked by industry lobbying.

Research Gaps

• ERCOT’s response (if any) to the October 31, 2022 information demands.
• The specific report or study underlying the “$170 million annually” figure.
• Whether a follow-up congressional hearing or second letter was issued after the August 2023 disclosures.

Related Entries

• ercot-miner-curtailment-subsidy
• 2023-09-06–riot-platforms-august-2023-ercot-curtailment-31m
• task-inv6-crypto-energy-no-federal-data-gap