US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper
US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper
Aggregates annual building energy benchmarking data from 15+ US jurisdictions with mandatory disclosure ordinances — NYC LL84, Chicago, Seattle, Montgomery County MD, Cincinnati, and more. All data lands in a single normalized schema, including site/source EUI, ENERGY STAR Score, GHG emissions, and reporting status.
What It Does
US cities with mandatory benchmarking laws publish their data through open data portals, mostly Socrata SODA v2 APIs. Each city uses slightly different field names, date formats, and coverage. This scraper handles all of that — pulling from each jurisdiction's endpoint, normalizing fields to a consistent schema, and delivering one dataset you can actually use across cities.
You can pull a single jurisdiction or queue them all in a single run.
Who Uses This Data?
ESG analysts pricing carbon risk into REITs, commercial real estate underwriters modeling transition risk, building decarbonization consultants scoping retrofit projects, and climate-tech startups building benchmarking tools. NYC LL97 carbon penalties started hitting in 2025 — the data is no longer academic.
Input
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
maxItems |
integer | Maximum total records to return across all jurisdictions. Default: 15. |
jurisdictions |
array | List of jurisdiction slugs to scrape. Leave empty to scrape all available. |
minYear |
integer | Optional. Only return records from this year or later. |
Available jurisdiction slugs:
| Slug | Source | Records (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
nyc-ll84 |
NYC Local Law 84 — data.cityofnewyork.us | ~28,000 |
chicago |
Chicago Energy Benchmarking — data.cityofchicago.org | ~28,000 |
seattle |
Seattle Building Energy Benchmarking — cos-data.seattle.gov | ~35,000 |
montgomery-county-md |
Montgomery County MD — data.montgomerycountymd.gov | ~5,000 |
cincinnati |
Cincinnati Energy Benchmarking — insights.cincinnati-oh.gov | ~600 |
Output Schema
Each record represents one property disclosure. Fields not available in a given jurisdiction are returned as null.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
source_jurisdiction |
string | Jurisdiction slug (e.g. nyc-ll84) |
data_year |
integer | Reporting year |
property_id |
string | Source-system property identifier |
property_name |
string | Property name |
parent_property_id |
string | Parent property ID (campus groupings) |
address |
string | Street address |
city |
string | City |
state |
string | State abbreviation |
postal_code |
string | ZIP code |
latitude |
number | Latitude |
longitude |
number | Longitude |
bbl |
string | NYC Borough-Block-Lot (NYC LL84 only) |
bin |
string | NYC Building Identification Number (NYC LL84 only) |
primary_property_type |
string | EPA property type (Office, Multifamily, K-12 School, etc.) |
gross_floor_area_sqft |
integer | Total gross floor area in square feet |
year_built |
integer | Year of original construction |
num_buildings |
integer | Number of buildings in the property |
occupancy_percent |
number | Occupancy rate |
energy_star_score |
integer | ENERGY STAR Score (1-100) |
site_eui_kbtu_sqft |
number | Site energy use intensity (kBtu/ft2) |
source_eui_kbtu_sqft |
number | Source energy use intensity (kBtu/ft2) |
weather_normalized_site_eui_kbtu_sqft |
number | Weather-normalized site EUI |
weather_normalized_source_eui_kbtu_sqft |
number | Weather-normalized source EUI |
electricity_use_kwh |
number | Electricity use (kWh) |
natural_gas_use_therms |
number | Natural gas use (therms) |
district_steam_use_kbtu |
number | District steam use (kBtu) |
water_use_kgal |
number | Water use (kgal) |
total_ghg_emissions_metric_tons_co2e |
number | Total GHG emissions (metric tons CO2e) |
direct_ghg_emissions_metric_tons_co2e |
number | Direct GHG emissions (metric tons CO2e) |
indirect_ghg_emissions_metric_tons_co2e |
number | Indirect GHG emissions (metric tons CO2e) |
ghg_intensity_kgco2e_sqft |
number | GHG emissions intensity (kgCO2e/ft2) |
reporting_status |
string | Compliance reporting status |
compliance_status |
string | Ordinance compliance status |
penalty_imposed |
number | Penalty amount (where published) |
ll97_emissions_limit |
number | NYC LL97 carbon cap (where applicable) |
chicago_energy_rating |
integer | Chicago's 0-4 star energy rating |
Usage Notes
Jurisdictions are scraped sequentially. Each jurisdiction is a separate API call with skip/limit pagination. Large runs (all jurisdictions, no maxItems limit) will take several minutes.
Data update frequency varies. NYC LL84 publishes annual snapshots, typically 12-18 months behind the calendar year. Other jurisdictions vary. Check each portal's "last updated" metadata if recency matters.
Field coverage is uneven by design. NYC has the richest schema (BBL, BIN, full energy breakdown). Chicago reports at a coarser level. The normalized schema makes cross-jurisdiction comparison possible — null fields in a row tell you the jurisdiction does not publish that metric, not that data is missing.
No proxy required. All endpoints are public Socrata APIs with no authentication or IP restrictions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper cost to run?
US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. Each building record scraped counts as one event. A full NYC LL84 pull (28,000 records) costs approximately $0.03 USD. A full multi-jurisdiction run across all five cities (100,000 records) runs approximately $0.10 USD.
What data can I get from US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper? US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper returns one record per building per disclosure year, including ENERGY STAR Score, site/source EUI, electricity use, natural gas use, GHG emissions, property type, floor area, and compliance status where available.
Can I filter by year?
US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper supports a minYear input that applies a server-side date filter before data is returned.
Does US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper need proxies? US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper does not require proxies. All source APIs are public Socrata endpoints without IP restrictions or authentication.
Which jurisdictions are covered? US Municipal Energy Benchmarking Disclosure Scraper currently covers NYC (LL84), Chicago, Seattle, Montgomery County MD, and Cincinnati. Additional jurisdictions with Socrata-hosted open data are on the expansion roadmap.