Trump Makes More Empty Promises on Data Centers and Energy as Costs Become a Political Liability For Republicans

Trump promised to cut energy bills in half in his first year in office – instead, they spiked 13% 

New research shows Americans are deeply concerned that data centers will raise costs

Washington, DC – In tonight’s State of the Union address, Donald Trump will reportedly announce a new policy related to data centers and electricity costs – but don’t buy the bullsh*t. Trump promised to cut energy costs in half in his first year in office, but instead, utility bills spiked 13% last year. Trump and Republicans have attempted to ban new wind and solar energy and are taking much-needed energy off the grid when demand is higher than ever. In 2025, Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia won on affordability and lowering energy costs, directly tying their opponents to Trump’s clean energy cuts. Now, skyrocketing energy costs continue to rise as a political liability for Republicans as voters increasingly cite electricity costs as a top concern. Instead of investing in cheaper clean energy, Trump is making more empty promises. 

Climate Power Senior Advisor Jesse Lee issued the following statement: “Just like his pledge to cut utility bills in half before they spiked 13% on his watch, Trump’s data center announcement is a toothless, empty promise based on backroom deals with his own billionaire donors. Making it worse, Trump is continuing to block clean energy production across the board—the only sources that can keep up with demand, ensure utility bills don’t keep skyrocketing, and prevent massive new amounts of pollution. Trump is obsessively taking massive amounts of clean energy off the grid, Americans are paying the price, and nothing Trump is saying tonight will stop it from getting worse.”

Data centers are driving up utility costs, but Trump is gutting the fastest, cheapest energy sources to meet the demand: 

• New polling from Climate Power and Blue Rose Research shows that voters are deeply concerned about the impact of data centers on increased utility costs and energy consumption: asked to select the more concerning issue in randomized head-to-head matchups against various data center-related issues, utility costs were selected 64% of the time, and energy consumption was selected 59% of the time.
• Voters care deeply about how data centers are powered — voters support data centers powered by clean energy by a +25-point margin and oppose those powered by fossil fuels by a 16-point margin.

• As of December of last year, planned data centers were expected to add 93 GW of electricity demand to the grid by 2029, accounting for over 14% of total U.S. power demand.  
• Trump’s war on clean energy has canceled or delayed 354 clean energy projects, which would have powered more than 14 million homes.
• Solar energy, onshore wind, battery storage, and energy efficiency are some of the most rapidly scalable and cost-competitive ways to meet the increased energy demand from data centers.
• Clean energy is the least expensive and quickest power source to add to the grid – in the first half of 2025, solar and wind energy generation outpaced electricity demand and generated more power than coal for the first time on record.