President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge has expanded, bringing more than 200 additional utilities and other entities into the compact to prevent electricity bills from rising with the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, the White House announced on July 23.
The pledge now includes utilities, data center developers, cooperatives, and states, the White House said in a news release. Twenty-three governors have signed on, along with more than 150 electricity sellers and 29 data center developers.
Under the pledge, large data center operators – not ratepayers – agree to fund the electricity generation and infrastructure needs required by AI data centers. With the new commitments, the White House said the pledge now covers 80% of all power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses and protects 263 million Americans from data center-fueled rate increases.
The pledge “shows that America can lead the world in AI and advanced computing without forcing working families to subsidize it” and delivers “meaningful price relief to Americans,” the White House said. Affordability is expected to be a key issue in the midterm elections in November, which will determine control of Congress.
Trump announced the pledge in his State of the Union address in February, saying that technology companies will be required to supply their own electricity for AI data centers at a time when “many Americans are also concerned that energy demand from [the data centers] could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills.”
Seven of the nation’s largest tech companies – Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI – quickly signed onto the pledge, with their CEOs gathering at the White House in March and agreeing to cover the cost of all power needed to fuel their data centers.
The push to protect consumers comes amid federal projections of steep growth in AI-driven energy demand. Last year, the Department of Energy predicted that half of all new American electrical power will be consumed by AI data centers by 2030 and warned that the nation could face an energy disaster unless it adopts innovative methods of power generation.
The growth of AI data centers has been controversial, with some polls showing that many Americans are not comfortable with the facilities being built nearby.
But the White House argues that it is essential to support data centers because “every part of American life” now runs through them, including phone calls, airplane sequencing, and hospital charts.
“Getting the economics right protects far more than the AI boom,” the White House says on its website.
As for the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, the White House argued in its July 23 news release that the program is already delivering relief to consumers.
In Georgia, for example, the release said that Southern Company is freezing base rates through 2029 and saving the typical residential customer more than $100 per year.
In Louisiana, it added, Entergy’s agreement with Meta ensures that Meta pays 100% of the costs to connect its Richland Parish data center.