Trump to Sign Yet Another Toothless “Pledge” That Won’t Do Anything to Lower Energy Costs For Americans
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Trump’s previous “pledge” had no enforcement mechanisms to protect consumers from electricity prices that have skyrocketed by 18% since he took office
A Climate Power/Center for American Progress Action Fund report found that Trump-GOP energy policies have already cost American households $213 in higher utility bills
Washington, DC – In yet another desperate attempt to do damage control on his disastrous energy agenda, Trump is reportedly gathering utility companies tomorrow for a “pledge” that they will help pay for skyrocketing demand from data centers. The pinky promise – which is completely voluntary and has no enforcement mechanisms – comes after gas and electric utilities have already requested to increase utility bills by more than $95 billion since Trump took office.
Trump has already convened tech companies for photo-ops disguised as “pledges” – and they didn’t lower American’s utility bills. Instead of allowing affordable, scalable clean energy onto the grid, Trump has actively pressured tech companies to power their data centers with fossil fuels that will increase utility costs and expose Americans to toxic pollutants.
Climate Power Senior Advisor Jesse Lee issued the following statement: “We’ve seen this movie before – these empty ‘pledges’ from Trump are just smoke and mirrors designed to hide the reality that he is responsible for skyrocketing energy costs. Instead of actually working to lower costs for Americans, he’s cozying up with tech executives while gutting the only energy source that will actually lower utility bills. He kickstarted an energy affordability crisis with his reckless policies and now, with the midterms just over 100 days away, he’s gaslighting the American people with pathetic photo-ops. We’ve got news for him: His desperate PR campaign is not going to work.”
Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” is an empty promise:
- Major data center developers, such as EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure and Tract, which are building some of the largest data center projects in Arizona, did not sign the original pledge, drawing skepticism from consumer advocates about the impact of Trump’s initiative.
- Experts said the pledge was meaningless and not enforceable.
- Entergy Louisiana is seeking a rate hike to help cover the costs of buying a gas-fired power plant for $1.8 billion, primarily to meet the power needs of Meta’s data center in Richland Parish. If approved, the average residential electric bill would increase by roughly $8 a month. Meta was among the tech companies that signed Trump’s pledge.
- Trump’s calls for tech companies to build their own power supply would still raise utility bills.
- Polling from Climate Power and Global Strategy Group shows that the top concern for voters around data centers is that they will raise utility costs for consumers. While voters generally oppose data centers in their communities, powering data centers with clean energy greatly increases support for them. Voters prefer data centers powered by clean energy by a 40-point margin.
- Data center demand was expected to drive gas turbine costs up by 195%, which analysts warned could raise electricity prices despite technology companies’ pledges to pay for their own power.
- Utilities were already spending tens of billions of dollars on data center power projects before Trump’s pledge, costs that ratepayers would likely absorb.