President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge Shows How America Can Win the AI Race Without Sticking Customers with the Bill

President Donald J. Trump brought together electric utilities and state leaders to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, an important step toward addressing one of the biggest challenges facing the country.

The Ratepayer Protection Pledge recognizes that America does not have to choose between winning the AI race and protecting customers from higher electric bills. We can—and must—do both. Encouragingly, states across the Southeast are already showing how. There, utilities, regulators, and policymakers are demonstrating that data center growth, customer protection, and economic development can go hand in hand. 

For example:

In Georgia, fast-paced data center growth led Georgia Power to announce a Customer Protection Plan designed to ensure data centers pay more so residential customers can pay less – most recently with the utility’s landmark flexible data center deal with OpenAI, which will be integrated in a way that supports grid reliability. The company also announced a residential rate reduction of roughly $50 per year.

In North Carolina, Duke Energy has said a new Amazon Web Services data center will create 2,000 temporary jobs and 500 permanent positions. Furthermore, for each gigawatt of data center capacity signed under a 15-year contract, the company says it generates up to $1 billion in savings for the broader customer base.

And in Louisiana, Entergy has said Meta's new data center will deliver billions of dollars in customer benefits over time while helping support investments in reliability and resilience.”

Read the White House announcement here.