Average electricity prices have risen 4 percent in the last 12 months, outpacing overall U.S. inflation, a burden directly impacting working families as tech companies expand their energy-intensive data centers. Federal forecasts predict these costs will climb further in the coming years. In response, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe have signed the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a nonbinding set of principles. This pledge, first introduced in March, aims to control data centers’ effect on energy prices, yet offers no concrete mechanism to prevent the continued surplus extraction by capital.
Electric utilities, including Southern Co., Duke Energy, and Exelon, are also expected to sign the pledge. The White House declined to confirm these signatories, stating only that President Trump’s pledge was drawing new support. This initiative functions as the Trump administration’s latest attempt to quell public concerns over artificial intelligence and the escalating energy prices that disproportionately affect the working class.
Capital's Empty Promises
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge asserts that data center developers should cover the full costs associated with their energy and water use, along with electric grid improvements and maintenance. However, its nonbinding nature means these commitments are largely symbolic. Executives from tech giants Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft signed their own pledge in March, promising to pay the full cost of electric infrastructure for their data centers. They also committed to working with grid operators and offering backup power, but these are self-regulated promises, not enforceable mandates that protect the public from rising costs.
The participation of GOP governors alongside Trump highlights the political liability data centers have created for elected officials. Staffers for several Democratic governors reported no outreach from the White House regarding the pledge. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who signed an executive order on Tuesday to pause most new hyperscale data center construction in her state, accused the White House of politicizing a critical issue. Her spokesperson, Ken Lovett, stated that while Washington Republicans “play politics and make pledges they won’t keep,” Governor Hochul was taking “real action.” Yet, even a pause on new hyperscale construction leaves existing infrastructure and other data center types untouched, failing to address the fundamental issue of corporate energy consumption.
The State's Complicity
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, both Democrats, also received no word from the Trump administration, despite agreeing with the pledge's stated merits. Stein’s spokesperson, Kate Schmidt, noted that the White House pledge aligns with Stein’s Energy Policy Task Force, emphasizing that data centers “need to pay their way so that North Carolina residents don’t bear the costs.” Member states of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition primarily of Democratic governors, have enacted policies and made commitments that they claim exceed Trump’s pledge. Nikki Burnett, a spokesperson for the group, cited Hochul’s action and initiatives in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
In January, Trump and a bipartisan group of governors called on the PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid operator in the United States, to hold an emergency auction for tech companies to buy power. This move aimed to tame skyrocketing prices in the region, a reactive measure that does not challenge the underlying profit motive driving energy demand. While the White House framework purports to protect customers from electricity rate increases, enforcement of its provisions largely falls to state legislatures and utility commissions. This structure allows tech companies under the pledge to negotiate rate structures directly with utilities and state governments, effectively letting capital dictate the terms of its own privatization of commons.
Lawmakers in the House are now seeking to codify the president’s nonbinding pledge into law. Some Democratic lawmakers have sought to go further, including calls for a nationwide data center moratorium. Such a moratorium would represent a more direct challenge to unchecked corporate expansion, but it remains a minority position against the prevailing political will to manage, rather than fundamentally alter, the current system of capital accumulation.