President Donald Trump will expand a voluntary pledge Thursday aimed at preventing American families from bearing the cost of the artificial intelligence industry's explosive energy demands, as mounting public frustration over data centers threatens to reshape November's midterm elections.
The expansion comes as utility bills could surge 15% to 40% by 2030 due to data center electricity consumption, according to ICF, a consulting and technology services company. Trump first announced the pledge with leading AI and tech companies in March, but that initial commitment has done little to comfort voters already struggling with affordability while watching billionaire-controlled tech companies compete for electricity, water and land in their communities.
A Voluntary Promise With Uncertain Results
Trump plans to discuss the pledge expansion at the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday. The White House said nearly 200 additional stakeholders, including utilities, data center developers and governors, have now committed to the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." The pledge would cover 80% of all power delivered to U.S. households and businesses.
But it's unclear whether consumers would see genuine savings, given that electricity demand is already growing. Trump himself described the pledge several months ago as "PR help" at a time when AI is evolving so quickly that governments are struggling to provide oversight.
"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 before the president's remarks.
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon are among the companies that have already committed to the pledge.
Bipartisan Resistance Grows
Opposition to data centers has spiraled into a bipartisan issue as voters worry about environmental impact, AI's use in schools, and the prospect of data centers making their communities more expensive and less livable. The resistance has spread into the Republican stronghold of rural Texas, leading to frustration with Gov. Greg Abbott, who is now among the 23 Republican governors who signed Trump's nonbinding pledge.
Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, has been using the issue to challenge Abbott before the November election. "They are owned by the richest men in the world," she said of data centers. "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, signed an order to ban construction of large server warehouses in her state for a year. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a law that he said would prevent utilities from passing along energy costs from data centers to residential and small-business customers.
Economic Growth Versus Public Burden
A slowdown in data center construction could derail what has been one of the dominant drivers of U.S. economic growth, in addition to possibly ceding the U.S. edge in cultivating the technology to China and create national security risks. Data center companies say their facilities help to generate tax revenues for school districts and reduce property tax burdens for homeowners.
But AI's increasing ability to perform basic tasks—such as driving, analyzing spreadsheets and writing software—also potentially threatens millions of jobs. That's created mounting public resistance as tech companies concentrate historic levels of wealth in the hands of a select group of tycoons.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose computer chips are enabling the AI revolution, said America's weakness is a lack of power generation for further developing the technology.
Why This Matters:
The voluntary nature of Trump's expanded pledge raises fundamental questions about whether market-driven solutions can protect working families from bearing the infrastructure costs of a technology revolution that primarily benefits billionaire tech executives. With utility bills potentially rising by up to 40% within four years, the stakes for household budgets are substantial—particularly for families already struggling with affordability. The bipartisan backlash reflects a broader concern about democratic accountability: communities are watching private companies reshape their access to essential resources like electricity and water without meaningful public input or binding protections. Whether voluntary corporate commitments can substitute for regulatory oversight will test the social contract at a moment when AI threatens to displace millions of workers while concentrating unprecedented wealth among a handful of tech tycoons.