During his State of the Union speech last week, Trump said he has arranged the new ‘Ratepayer Protection Pledge’.
- Executives from companies including Alphabet, Meta, and OpenAI are expected to attend.
- The pledge is designed to prevent households and small businesses from absorbing higher utility bills due to energy-hungry data centers.
- In June last year, the Trump administration cautioned that U.S. power outages could double by 2030.
President Donald Trump is reportedly scheduled to meet on Wednesday at the White House with leaders from major technology companies as his administration pushes for commitments to shield consumers from rising electricity costs linked to the expansion of artificial intelligence.
During his State of the Union speech last week, Trump said he has arranged the new ‘Ratepayer Protection Pledge’.
“Major tech companies need to provide their own power. They have to build their own plants. They have to produce their own energy.”
-Donald Trump, President, United States of America
White House Push On Energy Costs
According to a Reuters report, executives from companies including Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), parent of Google, Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and OpenAI are expected to attend as Trump formalizes the Ratepayer Protection Pledge on Wednesday.
The pledge is designed to prevent households and small businesses from absorbing higher utility bills due to energy-hungry data centers, as cited in the report. The rapid buildout of AI infrastructure has sharply increased electricity demand across the United States.
Data centers require vast computing power, placing strain on regional grids. With November midterm elections approaching, energy affordability has become a growing political issue for voters concerned about utility costs, said the report.
Why It Matters?
In June last year, the Trump administration cautioned that U.S. power outages could double by 2030 without new dependable electricity capacity.
“If current retirement schedules and incremental additions remain unchanged, most regions will face unacceptable reliability risks within five years,” said the Department of Energy.
Trump has urged major tech players to take responsibility for meeting their own energy needs rather than depending solely on public grids.
“They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one’s prices will go up. And in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community, and very substantially down,” said Trump in his State of the Union address.
GOOGL and META stocks have gained over 77% and 2%, respectively, in the last 12 months.
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