President Donald J. Trump announced on July 23 the expansion of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which now includes more than 200 additional utilities, data center developers, cooperatives, and states. The initiative aims to ensure that the growth of data centers supporting artificial intelligence will not result in higher electricity bills for American households and businesses.
According to the announcement, under the terms of the pledge, large data center operators are responsible for funding the electricity generation and infrastructure required by their projects. This means that ratepayers are not expected to bear these costs.
The pledge builds on earlier commitments made this year by major technology companies and hyperscale data center operators. With its latest expansion, it now covers approximately 80 percent of all power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses and is said to protect about 263 million Americans when a new data center is established nearby.
“The Ratepayer Protection Pledge is already delivering real relief,” Trump said in his statement.
The White House described this effort as an example of leveraging private-sector partnerships to provide price relief for Americans while supporting leadership in AI and advanced computing without requiring working families to subsidize industry growth.