A group of state governors, energy firms and data center operators have agreed to back President Donald Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge that calls for shielding homeowners and renters from rising electricity costs.
The president announced the added support Thursday at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s offices. A number of large technology and AI companies that have invested in data centers had signed on to the pledge in March, among them Amazon, Google, Meta and OpenAI. But backing from state leaders and utility companies is also important, the White House said in a statement, because they are the ones who determine electricity prices.
The growing pressure for data centers to cover the cost of their impact on electric bills comes as polls indicate that Americans are increasingly worried about how these industrial facilities are affecting their quality of life.
A report this month by the Brookings Institution think tank cited a recent Marquette University Law School poll that suggested that 70% of Wisconsin voters believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. That was up from six months earlier, when 55% of the state’s voters held that view.
Trump emphasized the value he places on data centers for their role in driving economic growth, including AI, but said the public's concerns are valid.
“It’s only fair that the cost of building the new infrastructure required to meet this demand should be borne by the corporations themselves, not by American consumers,” Trump said.
Nonbinding agreement
The nonbinding pledge says data center and AI companies should pay the full cost of their energy use, whether by generating the power themselves or buying it from others. That includes the expense of installing new transmission lines to carry power from where it’s produced to the users.
Companies would be expected to cover these costs even if they scale back how many data centers they actually build, so ratepayers aren’t left with the bill.
Twenty‑three state governors have now signed the pledge, joining the tech firms, more than 150 utilities and 28 data center developers, according to the White House website. Among them are Duke Energy, a major power provider in the Southeastern U.S., and Equinix, a large data center operator.
The pledge supporters account for roughly 80% of the power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses.
The governors of Nebraska, Idaho, Louisiana and Georgia joined Trump in person for his announcement, as well as the CEOs of utility companies Entergy Corporation and Southern Company, which provide power to homes in parts of the South.
Some states have already taken action to require data centers to pay their share. Oregon, Ohio and Virginia approved policy changes in the past year to put “large load” facilities, including data centers that consume more than a threshold amount of energy, in a different ratepayer class than other businesses or residential customers.
Public pushback
New York state this month became the first to place a moratorium on permits for new large data centers. The one-year pause affects facilities that could use enough electricity to power about 50,000 homes.
At least 14 other states are considering moratoriums or bans, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Meanwhile, a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved the Ratepayer Protection Act on Tuesday by a 52-0 vote. The bill would require utility regulators in all 50 states to consider policy changes similar to the ones that a few states have already approved.
However, regulators in each state retain the authority to set the terms for how homeowners and renters are charged for power.
Trump said in his remarks on Thursday that his administration was giving the large technology companies that signed the ratepayer pledge earlier this year “the right to build their own power plants” to generate their own electricity to take the burden off the public.
“The largest tech companies have committed to fund or build all of the energy infrastructure required to meet the demand they are placing upon the grid,” he said.