ABC's March Construction Backlog Indicator climbed to 8.6 months, up half a month from February, fully recovering from January's four-year low. The 15% of contractors with data center contracts are at 10.6 months of backlog versus 8.3 for everyone else — and staffing expectations across all contractors are now at the highest level since April 2022. If you run any commercial mechanical or electrical work and aren't pre-qualified with the GCs on hyperscaler campuses in your region, that 2.3-month gap is exactly the share of work walking past your shop.
OSHA Hits a Florida Roofer with $172,324 in Fall-Protection Penalties — and the Heat NEP Is Still Live (~3 min read)
OSHA cited Max Home Services LLC (operating as Pasat Roofing and Solar Energy) for one willful and two serious violations on April 24 after a tarp-installation job at a two-story Fort Lauderdale home killed one worker and injured another — both worked above 20 feet without fall protection. With the federal Heat NEP now extended through 2031 and HVAC, electrical, and plumbing crews squarely in scope, every rooftop condenser swap, panel pull, and rooftop unit service this summer is an OSHA inspection trigger. Spend the 30 minutes this week to inventory your harnesses, anchor points, and toolbox-talk records — that file is what stands between you and a six-figure citation.
HARDI ran its 2026 Congressional Fly-In April 20–21, with more than 65 distributor and manufacturer leaders holding 130-plus meetings on the Hill. The headline asks: relief from Section 232 steel/aluminum/copper tariffs, modernization of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, and switching federal efficiency compliance from install date to manufacture date — the last one alone would save shops from scrapping pre-cutoff inventory. Whichever direction this lands, your distributor's pricing and your A2L install math change. Track HARDI's tariff and EPCA bulletins instead of waiting for the next price-increase letter.
Of the three federal antitrust complaints filed against the big HVAC OEMs in late April, Isom v. Trane Technologies names Watsco — the largest U.S. HVAC distributor — as an alleged co-conspirator, not just a downstream channel. That widens the case from a "manufacturers coordinated prices" story to a "manufacturer-and-distributor coordination" story, which is a different theory of harm and a different damages model. If your shop buys heavily through Watsco-owned branches, save the invoices, but also pre-write a customer-facing line for the inevitable Google search question.
Related Digital and Blackstone confirmed April 25 that financing closed and major construction is underway on the Oracle data center campus outside Ann Arbor. Once online, the site will pull more than a gigawatt — roughly 25% of DTE's current peak demand — meaning a multi-year MEP scope that includes high-amp distribution, mission-critical cooling, and process-piping work. Michigan and northwest Ohio mechanical and electrical shops should be calling Related Digital's GC contacts and prequalifying this week, not next quarter.
📊 Stat of the Day: 10.6 months — the average backlog for contractors holding any data center work in March, versus 8.3 for everyone else. The single cleanest number this week showing where commercial mechanical and electrical demand is actually sitting.