WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is set to announce a broader version of a voluntary commitment designed to protect American consumers from utility bill increases tied to the explosive growth of artificial intelligence data centers. Governors and electricity companies are joining the effort, reflecting how the AI building boom has become a politically charged issue heading into the midterm elections.
Trump first unveiled the pledge back in March alongside major AI and tech companies, but that early commitment has done little to ease the concerns of everyday Americans already struggling with the cost of living. Many worry about having to compete with tech giants — often backed by billionaires — for electricity, water, and land. With electricity demand already on the rise, it remains uncertain whether ordinary consumers would see any real savings.
The president himself described the pledge several months ago as “PR help” at a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping society faster than governments can keep pace. He planned to discuss the expanded pledge at the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday.
“The president is ensuring the American people are never left footing the bill so private companies can benefit,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters ahead of the president’s remarks.
The White House reported that close to 200 additional participants — including utilities, data center developers, and state governors — have now signed on. The pledge is designed to cover 80% of all electricity delivered to U.S. homes and businesses.
Supporters of data center growth warn that slowing construction could undermine one of the biggest engines of the American economy and potentially allow China to gain ground in the global AI race, raising national security concerns.
At the same time, AI’s growing capacity to handle tasks once done by humans — such as driving vehicles, processing data, and writing computer code — is putting millions of jobs at risk. That reality has fueled widespread public pushback, particularly as enormous wealth concentrates among a small number of technology executives.
A recent analysis by ICF, a consulting and technology services firm, found that rising electricity demand from data centers could push monthly utility bills up by 15% to 40% by the year 2030.
Resistance to data centers has become a bipartisan concern. Communities across the country are worried about environmental damage, the use of AI in classrooms, and fears that data centers will make their neighborhoods more expensive and harder to live in. Data center companies counter that their facilities generate tax revenue for local school districts and help lower property tax burdens for homeowners.
The backlash has even reached deep into Republican territory. In rural Texas, frustration has grown over data center expansion, and it has spilled over into criticism of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is now among 23 Republican governors who have signed Trump’s nonbinding pledge.
Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, has seized on the issue in her campaign against Abbott ahead of the November election.
“They are owned by the richest men in the world,” she said, referring to data center companies. “We’re all footing the bill. There are no rules. It is the Wild West of data centers.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, issued an order halting construction of large server facilities in her state for one year. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed legislation he said would stop utilities from passing data center energy costs on to home and small-business customers.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — whose computer chips are at the heart of the AI revolution — said that a shortage of power generation capacity is America’s biggest weakness in advancing the technology.
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon are among the companies that have already signed on to the Trump administration’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” committing that consumers will not bear the financial burden of the data center expansion.
