100-point directional score: Policy signal, up to 30 points, measures laws, bills, pilots, study commissions, and financing authority. Utility impact, up to 25 points, measures whether utilities, municipal utilities, gas transition planning, cost recovery, or public-improvement financing can scale the idea. Data-center pressure, up to 25 points, measures whether new electric load, heat rejection, water use, and grid constraints create an argument for thermal reuse. Project proof, up to 20 points, measures DOE pilots, utility pilots, campus systems, municipal projects, or known TENs systems. Scores are advocacy-screening estimates and should be refined as sources update.

Why this matters: data centers are usually treated as electric loads, but liquid cooling and closed-loop hydronics can turn them into thermal anchors. Communities can ask for heat-reuse feasibility, closed-loop water plans, nearby public-building thermal screening, and grid-benefit reporting before approving major new load.

Use this as the national template: define TENs as shared piping/heat-exchange infrastructure; authorize utility, municipal, campus, nonprofit, co-op, developer, and public-private ownership; allow cost recovery or grant/loan programs; require pilot reporting; protect low- and middle-income customers; include labor/apprenticeship standards; allow alternatives to gas obligation-to-serve; require data-center heat-reuse feasibility; make thermal loops eligible for public-improvement financing; and let local governments use schools, campuses, wastewater, and public buildings as anchor loads.