Method
How a screen works
Public data, a fixed checklist, and a plain statement of what public data cannot tell you.
Data sources
- Transmission lines and inferred substations: archived HIFLD Transmission Lines (SeerAI archive, CC BY 4.0). HIFLD's public portal closed in August 2025; the archive preserves its last public version.
- Utilities: HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (EIA-861 based).
- Flood: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried live.
- Rules: The MW Desk legislation tracker, including the Moratorium Nation dataset (CC BY 4.0), each row linked to its primary source.
- Counties: US Census cartographic boundaries. Geocoding: OpenStreetMap Nominatim.
The red-flag checklist
| Check | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission | No mapped 115 kV+ line within 5 miles | Nearest 115 kV+ line within 5 miles but no 230 kV+ within 2 | 230 kV+ line within 2 miles |
| Substations | Unknown if none mapped: substation data not available in this dataset within 5 miles | Named endpoint within 5 miles | |
| Flood | Point in a FEMA high-risk zone (A/V) | High-risk zone within 400 m, or no FEMA map | No high-risk zone at or around the point |
| Local rules | Moratorium in force | Moratorium pending, or other local rules on record | |
| State rules | State moratorium or permit halt in force | Large-load tariffs, pending moratoria | |
| Utility | Co-op, municipal or overlapping territories | Single investor-owned utility | |
| Size and location | Under 20 acres, or address matched only to the street |
These are screening heuristics, not engineering. Always listed as unknown: grid capacity and queue, fiber, water and sewer capacity, wetlands and species, title and easements, airspace, and community sentiment.
Delivery
Every screen is generated from the records above, checked by a second automated pass, and reviewed before it is sent. Unknowns print as "Not found in public records as of" the date we read them. Nothing is guessed.