Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe have signed President Donald Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, marking a significant expansion of the administration's effort to prevent data centers from driving up electricity costs for ordinary Americans. Major electric utilities—including Southern Co., Duke Energy, and Exelon—are expected to follow suit, according to sources familiar with the administration's plans.
The pledge itself is nonbinding. It commits signatories to a set of principles requiring data center developers to cover the full costs associated with powering their operations, including energy consumption, water use, grid improvements, and maintenance. Tech companies Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft signed an initial version of the pledge in March, making identical commitments to negotiate directly with utilities and state governments on rate structures.
Electricity prices have risen 4 percent over the last 12 months, outpacing overall U.S. inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal forecasts predict costs will climb even higher in coming years. The Trump administration is leveraging the pledge as a market-based approach to address public anxiety about artificial intelligence infrastructure and its impact on household energy bills.
Market-Based Accountability Over Mandates
Unlike heavier-handed regulatory approaches, the pledge relies on negotiated agreements between private companies and state utility commissions rather than federal mandates. Enforcement falls primarily to state legislatures and utility commissions, preserving the principle that energy policy decisions should remain close to the voters they affect. Tech companies are tasked with working directly with grid operators to contribute to reliability and offering backup power to prevent blackouts—solutions driven by market incentives rather than government compulsion.
The participation of three Republican governors signals growing concern among elected officials across the political spectrum about data center expansion's fiscal impact on ratepayers. However, the White House did not extend outreach to Democratic governors, according to staffers for several Democratic-led states. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said he'd received no contact from the Trump administration despite supporting the pledge's core principle that "any data center development must lower energy costs for Coloradans and save people money on energy," according to his spokesperson Eric Maruyama.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday to pause most new hyperscale data center construction in the state, taking a more restrictive stance than the pledge allows. Her office accused the White House of politicizing the issue, claiming the administration makes "pledges they won't keep." North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, also a Democrat, hadn't been contacted by the Trump administration either, though his Energy Policy Task Force aligns with the pledge's goals, according to spokesperson Kate Schmidt.
The Alternative: Government Intervention
Member states of the U.S. Climate Alliance—a coalition dominated by Democratic governors—have enacted policies exceeding Trump's pledge framework. These include Hochul's construction pause alongside initiatives in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Some Democratic lawmakers have pushed for even more aggressive action, including calls for a nationwide data center moratorium.
In January, Trump and a bipartisan group of governors called directly on the PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. power grid operator, to hold an emergency auction allowing tech companies to purchase power at competitive rates. This intervention aimed to combat skyrocketing prices in the region through market mechanisms rather than price controls.
House lawmakers are moving to codify the president's pledge into law, though some Democratic members seek to go considerably further with mandatory restrictions on data center development. An event scheduled for this week to announce the latest signatories has been delayed, according to sources familiar with the planning.
Why This Matters:
The pledge represents a fundamental choice between market-based solutions and government mandates. By requiring data centers to negotiate directly with utilities and state regulators rather than imposing federal restrictions, the approach preserves state authority over energy policy while holding companies accountable for infrastructure costs. The fact that utility companies are signing demonstrates that private enterprise can self-regulate when the right incentives exist. However, the push by Democratic states toward construction moratoriums and nationwide restrictions shows the political pressure to abandon market mechanisms in favor of government control. With electricity prices rising faster than overall inflation, how policymakers resolve this tension will determine whether energy costs stabilize through negotiation or spike due to restricted supply and regulatory uncertainty.