Bitcoin mining large MARA has filed a federal lawsuit to dam native elections scheduled for Nov. 4 in Hood County, Texas, alleging that county officers illegally positioned a municipal incorporation measure on the poll to focus on its knowledge middle operations.
This text is from Theminermag, a commerce publication for the cryptocurrency mining trade, and focuses on the most recent information and analysis on institutional bitcoin mining firms.
Within the 47-page criticism filed Oct. 27 within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Texas, MARA accuses Hood County, County Decide Ron Massingill, County Lawyer Matt Mills and Elections Administrator Stephanie Cooper of “willful and unconstitutional” conduct in passing a poll initiative to create a brand new township referred to as Mitchell Bend round MARA’s mining amenities close to Granbury.
MARA claims that the town’s proposed boundaries had been “drawn solely to encompass” its web site, giving native residents regulatory energy to “tax and regulate their companies.” The corporate argues that the county violated a number of provisions of the Texas Native Authorities Code governing municipal incorporations, together with inhabitants, boundary and pre-existing group standing necessities.
The dispute arises from neighborhood opposition to the large-scale air-cooled bitcoin mining facility, which MARA acquired in early 2024. The corporate started mitigating noise final summer time by transitioning to immersion cooling expertise, which submerges mining machines in liquid coolant to dampen sound.
On the time, MARA stated it had put in a 24-foot acoustic wall, moved fan-cooled models away from properties and anticipated the brand new dip containers to be absolutely applied by the top of the yr. Regardless of these measures, tensions endured. The residents, organized beneath a gaggle referred to as Residents Involved About Wolf Hole and represented by the environmental legislation agency Earthjustice, sued the corporate in 2024 for personal nuisances, however later misplaced a noise-related case in county court docket.
The brand new lawsuit claims that Hood County Decide Ron Massingill, County Lawyer Matt Mills and Elections Administrator Stephanie Cooper labored with the identical group to expedite the incorporation measure earlier than the August voting deadline. Inside emails cited within the submitting present officers acknowledging flaws within the petition, akin to inconsistent metropolis names and lacking boundary maps, whereas pushing it anyway.
“The county shouldn’t be going to invalidate the petition right now,” Mills wrote in an Oct. 3 e-mail cited within the criticism. “The courts are open to the submitting of an injunction.”
Marathon maintains that the incorporation effort served “no authentic municipal goal” and was as an alternative designed to “regulate and tax the corporate till it ceases to exist.”
The MARA Holdings, Inc. et al. v. Hood County, Texas et al., is docketed as No. 4:25-cv-1202 within the Northern District of Texas, Fort Value Division.
The unique article will be seen right here.
