Trump set to expand power cost pledge on data centers
FILE PHOTO: Electrical transmission towers, poles and lines are shown in the early morning of a hot summer day in Commerce, California, U.S, August 7, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Read a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
July 22 : President Donald Trump is set to unveil on Thursday a pledge backed by governors, lawmakers, utilities and data center developers aimed at shielding households from electricity costs tied to the AI boom, as he pushes to make the United States the global leader in artificial intelligence.
It extends Trump’s original Ratepayer Protection Pledge from March to ensure the companies building and using data centers pay above and beyond normal rates so that costs are not passed on to average households.
Trump will be joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, and several of the state governors who signed the original pledge, according to a White House official.
Protecting electricity customers from data center demands is no easy task, however, as the country’s patchwork system of regional electric grids is already under severe strain. Massive congestion on transmission lines, for example, surged 81 per cent to $3.2 billion in 2025 in the PJM Interconnection, the largest regional electric grid that serves 67 million people.
Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time
Buzzword
Create words using the given letters
Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser
Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge
Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
Last week, the latest annual power auction at PJM pushed up prices to record levels. On Thursday, energy regulator FERC will meet to discuss the precarious future of PJM in light of its ongoing supply and demand imbalance.
“Today’s electricity system forces almost everyone, from homeowners to hyperscale data centers, to depend on the same network,” Travis Fisher, director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, recently wrote.
“That one-size-fits-all model increasingly does not serve either group well. Large customers may wait a decade or longer for service, while ordinary ratepayers worry that expanding the grid for massive new industrial loads will ultimately increase their own bills.”
Data center advocates say the industry’s rapid expansion is driving long-overdue investments in America’s electric grid and cite other factors driving up costs, including power-plant retirements and transmission constraints.
The White House says the pledge, which is nonbinding, will now cover 80 per cent of all the power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses.
(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin in Boston; Laila Kearney in New York and Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Timothy Gardner and Nia Williams)
Source: Reuters
Sign up for our newsletters
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
About The Author
