President Trump announced at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., that nearly two-dozen governors have signed the administration’s expanded pledge to protect Americans’ from soaring utility costs in the wake of data center developments.
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge, originally announced in March, is now backed by more than 200 organizations, as well as governors, companies, and utility entities. Governors who signed the pledge include those from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Speaking at the pledge’s ceremony, President Trump said, “We’re here today to continue the incredible progress we’re making in communities nationwide to ensure that as new data centers go up… electricity bills for American families will actually come down.”
“With the Trump Administration’s Ratepayer Protection Plan, American innovators and consumers strive to win together because we’re insisting that AI data centers and big tech companies pay their own way,” he added.
“Data center infrastructure is the foundation of modern American life — from the internet and cloud computing to hospital records and 911 dispatch. As that infrastructure scales, so does the electricity it needs — and, without safeguards, so do the utility bills of ordinary Americans who had nothing to do with driving that demand,” the White House’s website on the Ratepayer Protection Plan states.
According to the pledge signed by the various parties, companies will “Companies will build, bring, or buy the new generation resources and electricity needed to satisfy their new energy demands, paying the full cost of those resources whether by building, or buying from, new or otherwise additive power plants” and pay for “all new power delivery infrastructure upgrades required to service their data centers.” Companies will also work with grid operators to create a more reliable system.
