Trump expands data center Ratepayer Protection Pledge to more than 200 new signatories

President Donald Trump announced an expansion of the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge on July 23, adding more than 200 utilities, data center developers, cooperatives and states. The White House said the commitment now shields 263 million Americans from data center-driven power costs.

The pledge requires large data center operators, not ratepayers, to fund the electricity generation and infrastructure their projects need. The White House says the expanded version now covers 80% of all power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses — a response to mounting political pressure over how the AI buildout is reshaping household utility bills.

The original pledge launched in March 2026 with Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon as signatories. The expansion added 23 Republican governors, including Louisiana’s Jeff Landry, Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Nebraska’s Jim Pillen, alongside Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.

The White House cited state-specific commitments to back the claim. Indiana’s NiSource is expected to return $1.4 billion to customers over 15 years, Georgia’s Southern Company is freezing base rates through 2029, and a deal between Mississippi’s Entergy and Amazon is projected to generate about $2 billion in customer benefits.

Those figures are the administration’s characterization, and the pledge itself is voluntary. Consulting firm ICF has estimated that electricity bills could rise 15% to 40% by 2030 as data center demand grows. Matthew Freedman of the Utility Reform Network said the same tech companies signing the federal pledge have simultaneously opposed binding state-level ratepayer protections, and Texas Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa raised similar objections.

The gap between a voluntary federal commitment and enforceable state rules is where the pledge will be tested. Whether the cited rate freezes and rebates hold as gigawatt-scale projects come online will determine if the 263-million figure means anything to the people paying the bills.