President Donald Trump on Thursday had governors and electricity companies join a voluntary pledge to shield U.S. consumers from higher utility bills from data centers \u2014 a sign of how the\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0build-out has become a lightning rod of controversy before the\u00a0midterm elections.<\/p>\n
\n
The president first announced the pledge with\u00a0leading AI and tech companies\u00a0in March, but that initial commitment has done little to comfort voters who are already grappling with affordability issues as they worry about competing for electricity, water and land with tech companies controlled by billionaires. It\u2019s unclear, with electricity demand already growing, whether consumers would see genuine savings.<\/p>\n
Trump is doubling down on the pledge at a time when the broader social contract is being rewritten by AI, a technology that is evolving so quickly in its capabilities that governments are struggling over how to provide oversight.<\/p>\n
The president, in remarks about the pledge at the Environmental Protection Agency, called on the gathered executives and governors to sell the public on data centers, stressing that the cities and towns that do have them will be \u201crich.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to convince your community,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou can\u2019t fight it. You have to go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president added: \u201cIf you don\u2019t take all that money, somebody else is going to take it. You might as well do it yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about data centers cross party lines<\/h4>\n
The president promised that electricity prices would drop because of the nonbinding pledge, saying there would be a surplus of power. It\u2019s not clear that data centers generating their own electricity will be sufficient to overcome the rising demand for electricity, but that did not deter Trump from saying that utility bills \u2014 a major concern for voters \u2014 will be lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectricity bills for American families will actually come down,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have a lot of electricity left over, and they\u2019ll put that into the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House said Thursday the pledge has been signed by 23 governors and at least 187 companies, including 55 utilities and 27 data center developers. Signers include some of the nation\u2019s biggest utilities such as NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, American Electric Power, Southern Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric.<\/p>\n
Data center developers that have signed the pledge include Equinix, Digital Realty and Prologis.<\/p>\n
A slowdown in data center construction could derail what has been one of the\u00a0dominant drivers\u00a0of U.S. economic growth, in addition to possibly ceding the U.S. edge in cultivating the technology to China and create national security risks.<\/p>\n
But AI\u2019s increasing ability to perform basic tasks \u2014 such as driving, analyzing spreadsheets and writing software \u2014 also potentially threatens millions of jobs. That has created mounting public resistance as tech companies concentrate historic levels of wealth in the hands of a select group of tycoons.<\/p>\n
The increased electricity demand could cause monthly utility bills to rise by 15% to 40% by 2030, according to a recent analysis by ICF, a consulting and technology services company.<\/p>\n
Opposition to data centers has spiraled into a bipartisan issue. Voters are worried about the environmental impact, use of AI in schools and the prospect of data centers making their communities more expensive and less livable. Data center companies say their facilities help to generate tax revenues for school districts and reduce property tax burdens for homeowners.<\/p>\n
The opposition has spread\u00a0into the Republican stronghold of rural Texas and led to frustration with Gov. Greg Abbott, who is now among the 23 Republican governors who signed Trump\u2019s nonbinding pledge.<\/p>\n
Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, has been using the issue to challenge Abbott before the November election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are owned by the richest men in the world,\u201d she said of data centers. \u201cWe\u2019re all footing the bill. There are no rules. It is the Wild West of data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat,\u00a0signed an order\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n
Already, dozens of state legislatures or utility commissions have moved to put in place requirements that data centers pay the cost of their electricity, including new power plants or transmission system upgrades. But it\u2019s not<\/p>\n
Tech companies are pushing growth of data centers<\/h4>\n
In California, however, the industry opposes legislation designed to protect consumers from electricity price increases attributable to data centers, said Matthew Freedman, a staff attorney for the Utility Reform Network.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that the same tech companies signing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge are simultaneously opposing efforts at the state level to force them to deliver on their promises,\u201d Freedman said.<\/p>\n
In an\u00a0interview with The Associated Press\u00a0last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose computer chips are enabling the AI revolution, said America\u2019s weakness is a lack of power generation for further developing the technology.<\/p>\n
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon are among the companies that have already committed to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cRatepayer Protection Pledge\u201d that consumers will not shoulder the cost of the data center build-out.<\/p>\n
Despite the pledge, there are challenges on addressing issues with electricity prices.<\/p>\n
The White House has complained that PJM Interconnection, which oversees electric power in 13 states from Virginia to Illinois, can\u2019t ensure adequate electricity supplies at reasonable prices in the AI-driven boom.<\/p>\n
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Thursday that PJM \u2014- the nation\u2019s largest grid operator \u2014 has failed to implement a bipartisan statement of principles signed by the Trump administration and all 13 governors in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration strongly advises PJM and its member companies to proactively reform its stakeholder process, reform its board governance, and implement the Statement of Principles before it is too late,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
There are efforts to formalize Trump\u2019s pledge as law, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee approving a bipartisan bill. The bill would require data centers to bear the costs of grid upgrades.<\/p>\n
__<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #promises #cheaper #power #data #centers #Analysts #bills #jump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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