Last updated: July 10, 2026
GridWatch is an independent public-interest news and accountability publisher. We cover the U.S. data-center buildout — the hyperscale campuses reshaping local power grids, water supplies, and tax bases. We take no money from the operators, developers, utilities, or economic-development groups we cover, and we are a separate brand from the volunteer open-source DeFlock mapping project, whose work we support and credit. These standards describe how we report, how we label what we publish, and how we hold ourselves accountable.
How We Work
Our reporting starts with records. We build stories from public records, government documents, court filings, permit and zoning applications, utility filings, city and county meeting agendas, direct sources, and the communities affected by data-center development. Where a document exists, we read the document. Where a claim can be checked against a primary source, we check it.
When we publish a public record — a permit, a contract, an incentive agreement, an audit, or a policy obtained through a records request or contributed by a local chapter — publication means the record is genuine and of public interest. It does not imply any endorsement of, or allegation beyond, the contents of the record itself.
Opinion vs. News
We publish both factual reporting and commentary, and we keep the line between them clear. Commentary is written as commentary: it reads as argument and advocacy, and it does not pretend to be a neutral news account. Factual reporting cites its sources, so readers can see where a claim comes from and judge it for themselves.
Sourcing
We favor documents over anonymous claims. A permit application, a utility filing, a contract, a court filing, or a meeting agenda is worth more to us than an unattributed assertion, and our stories reflect that preference.
We use anonymous sources only when necessary — typically when a source faces genuine risk for speaking — and only when we can corroborate what they tell us through documents or independent confirmation. An anonymous claim we cannot corroborate does not run.
Public Records & FOIA
We file public-records requests under federal and state open-records laws, and we publish what we receive. Permits, contracts, incentive and PILOT agreements, utility filings, audits, and correspondence obtained through these requests go into our document repository so that readers, researchers, and local groups can use them directly rather than taking our word for what they say.
AI-Assisted Journalism
We use artificial intelligence in our newsroom, and we say so openly.
AI tools assist with drafting, summarization, and research. That work happens under fixed editorial rules, with automated verification gates that check content before it publishes, and with human editorial oversight of the operation as a whole. Some of our content is produced and published through automated pipelines; not every individual item receives human review before it goes live. What every item gets is the same set of editorial rules, the same verification checks, and the same accountability afterward: when we get something wrong, we correct it promptly and publicly.
We believe this is an honest way to run an AI-assisted newsroom — disclose the practice, constrain it with rules and verification, keep humans responsible for the standards, and fix errors fast. See our Corrections Policy for how that works in practice.
Independence
We do not take money from data-center operators, developers, or utilities, from data brokers, or from tracking-based advertising networks. No company we cover funds our coverage. We are not sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsed by any hyperscaler, developer, utility, or economic-development group, and we are independent of every government agency we report on.
Company and product names referenced on this site are the trademarks of their respective owners. We reference them for identification, reporting, and commentary only.
Fact-Checking Policy
We strive for factual accuracy using public records, court filings, government documents, utility filings, and direct sources. If factual errors are identified we will promptly review and correct them.
If you believe something we published is wrong, tell us through our contact page with the subject “Correction”. Our Corrections Policy explains what to include and what to expect from us.