Republican governors, data center developers, and utilities have signed on to President Donald Trump‘s ratepayer protection pledge, promising to ensure that data centers secure their own energy to prevent households from bearing the cost.
The president, along with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, held a signing event on Thursday at the EPA headquarters to announce that nearly 200 stakeholders have signed on to the pledge.
“The American innovators and consumers thrive to win together because we’re insisting that AI data centers and Big Tech companies pay their own way, and that’s what they’re doing and they’re happy to do it because this way they’re going to be able to function and function brilliantly,” Trump said at the signing event. “They’re going to have a lot of electricity left over. They’ll put that into the grid, so we’ll actually end up with more electricity. The rates are going to go down.”
Republican governors signed on to the agreement, including Louisiana’s Jeff Landry, Georgia’s Brian Kemp, Nebraska’s Jim Pillen, and Idaho’s Brad Little, who were in attendance at the event. The other new signatures added to the pledge include major utilities, such as Duke Energy and NextEra Energy.
The ratepayer protection pledge was first announced by the White House in March. Then, executives from tech companies signed on, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon.
The pledge included several promises, including that major technology companies would build, bring, or procure energy needed to power their data centers while covering the full cost of any infrastructure upgrades.
Trump has promoted data center growth in the United States, arguing it is necessary to compete with China.
But there has been growing public opposition to data centers across the country, as people raise concerns about energy prices, water consumption, and noise pollution. A Gallup poll conducted in early March found that 7 out of 10 people oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their area, with 48% strongly opposed.
Data centers are highly energy-intensive and are expected to account for about 20% of the U.S. electricity consumption in 2035, up from 5.9% today, according to BloombergNEF.
Democrat-led states, lawmakers, and communities across the country have pushed for moratoriums on data centers, as policymakers work to regulate the AI facilities. New York earlier this month enacted a one-year ban on data centers.
“You have communities that really want the data centers, and frankly, those are the smart communities because it means tremendous numbers of jobs, very little actual disruption,” Trump said.
BILL TO PROTECT HOUSEHOLDS FROM DATA CENTER ENERGY COSTS ADVANCES IN HOUSE
Lawmakers have recently proposed legislation that mirrors the White House’s pledge.
House lawmakers earlier this week advanced the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act out of committee, which would require state regulators to create standards for new data centers and hyperscalers that consume over 100 megawatts of electricity to cover the costs of new generation, transmission, and infrastructure upgrades.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
