President Donald Trump promised his data center pledge would lower Americans’ electricity bills.
Trump expanded his voluntary, nonbinding Ratepayer Protection Pledge on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Signed by 23 governors, 55 utility companies and 27 data center companies, the pledge asks tech companies to cover their own power costs, according to the White House’s official Ratepayer Pledge page.
“Electricity bills for American families will actually come down,” Trump said, according to the AP. “They’re going to have a lot of electricity left over, and they’ll put that into the grid.”
Energy trends complicate that claim. “Residential electricity rates could rise 15% to 40% over the next five years,” the ICF, an energy consulting firm, said in a May 2025 analysis of select U.S. utilities.
“President Trump expanded his Ratepayer Protection Pledge to governors, legislators, developers, and power providers to ensure everyone involved in building and powering data centers covers their own costs instead of passing them on to American families,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The President’s bold action is turning data centers into engines of growth for local communities, while cementing America’s dominance in the global AI race,” Rogers added.
Among the companies that agreed to Trump’s pledge are Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon.
The tech industry is fighting state legislation opposed to data center-driven price hikes in California.
“It is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that the same tech companies signing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge are simultaneously opposing efforts at the state level to force them to deliver on their promises,” Matthew Freedman, a staff attorney for the Utility Reform Network told the AP.
“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,” Trump said, according to an official White House X post.
PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator that provides energy to 13 states, ignored the White House’s framework of principles signed by all 13 governors encompassing the states its grid supports on Thursday, the AP reported. PJM capacity prices have soared from under $30 to $329 per megawatt-day in the past two years, according to the grid operator’s auction results.
(DCNF)