The hearing clock that binds

Press releases arrive after the vote. Public notices arrive before it. For data-center load, the clock that actually binds is often a comment deadline, a hearing date, or a notice period printed on a county, PUC, or FERC docket — not the day a trade outlet recaps the outcome.

What the row carries

A hearing-clock row still uses source + document ID + event class. The headline names the bind: comment due, hearing set, notice published, intervention window open, or order adopting a schedule. Operator and MW appear only if the record states them. County and commission matter because they tell you whose room and whose rules. The dek-level fact is the one date that forces a calendar change.

We do not invent docket numbers. If you see a teaching example with a fake ID, it is labeled EXAMPLE. Live rows quote the ID on the agency page.

Where the clocks live

• County planning / zoning notices — rezoning, special exception, site plan, and overlay hearings with published comment or appearance deadlines.
• State PUC / PSC dockets — large-load tariffs, riders, CPCN for substations, IRP load-forecast revisions, and co-location fights with intervention or reply dates.
• FERC eLibrary — show-cause, tariff, and large-load dockets when the filing sets a comment or compliance date that actually names load or interconnection.
• ISO/RTO process calendars — only when the public artifact ties a study or response due date to a named large-load identity.

One clock, not a newsletter

Related exhibits and appendices stay context on the same row. We do not turn every PDF page into its own headline. If the commission later moves the hearing or extends comments, that is a new delta on the same identity when the new date is on the source. If a second docket opens for the same campus, it is a second identity until the records say otherwise.

Site-selection BD, utility large-load teams, and GC/MEP BD pay for avoiding a wasted trip. A circled hearing date does that job earlier than a post-vote story. Opposition risk and freeze risk often show up here first — moratoria, ballot measures, and local notice language — still as public-record pointers, not as magazine features.

What it is not

This is not legal advice and not a prediction of the vote. It is not a $/kW database and not a lease comp. Open the notice. Match the document ID. Confirm the date on the commission or county page. If the clock is not printed there, wait.

The weekday brief is the product. These notes stay free.