Last week, President Donald J. Trump brought together electric utilities and state leaders to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, an important step toward addressing one of the biggest challenges facing the country.
America needs the infrastructure to lead the world in artificial intelligence. But Americans are right to ask whether they will be left paying for the massive buildout required to power that growth.
They shouldn't.
The companies driving unprecedented demand for electricity should bear the costs of serving that demand—not families and small businesses already working hard to make ends meet.
That is why the Ratepayer Protection Pledge matters. It recognizes that America does not have to choose between winning the AI race and protecting customers from higher electric bills. We can—and must—do both.
Encouragingly, some states are already showing how.
Across much of the Southeast, utilities, regulators, and policymakers are demonstrating that data center growth, customer protection, and economic development can go hand in hand. Rather than viewing these goals as competing priorities, they have adopted policies that align them.
A key reason is a regulatory framework that gives state regulators oversight over how data centers are added to the grid and how the costs of serving them are allocated. Utilities also have the ability to plan for rising demand and develop the generation needed to serve customers reliably.
Just as important, many utilities have deep roots in the communities they serve. They understand that attracting a new data center should benefit more than the company building it. It should create jobs, strengthen local economies, improve infrastructure, and deliver value to existing customers.
Consider what is already happening.
In Georgia, fast-paced data center growth led Georgia Power to announce a Customer Protection Plan designed to ensure data centers pay more so residential customers can pay less – most recently with the utility’s landmark flexible data center deal with OpenAI, which will be integrated in a way that supports grid reliability. The company also announced a residential rate reduction of roughly $50 per year.
In North Carolina, Duke Energy has said a new Amazon Web Services data center will create 2,000 temporary jobs and 500 permanent positions. Furthermore, for each gigawatt of data center capacity signed under a 15-year contract, the company says it generates up to $1 billion in savings for the broader customer base.
In Louisiana, Entergy has said Meta's new data center will deliver billions of dollars in customer benefits over time while helping support investments in reliability and resilience.
These examples demonstrate an important point: data centers can do more than support America's AI ambitions. When structured properly, they can strengthen communities, support grid investments, create jobs, and deliver benefits to existing customers.
Unfortunately, not every part of the country is achieving these outcomes.
Some states rely on deregulated electric markets that were intended to lower costs through competition. Yet many customers in those states are facing rising electricity prices while demand continues to grow.
From a cost perspective, our research has shown that residential customers pay on average 54% more for electricity in deregulated states than in regulated electric states.
A new study from a respected consumer advocate also found that American households in deregulated states paid at least $48 billion more for electricity over the past decade than they would have with regulated utilities.
That should concern anyone who is worried about costs and wants America to lead in AI.
The answer is not to slow down data center development. The answer is to expand the policies and regulatory frameworks that are already proving successful in parts of the country.
President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge provides an important roadmap. It recognizes that America's economic and technological leadership depends on building the infrastructure needed to power the AI era. But it also recognizes that customers deserve protection.
The good news is that we do not have to choose one goal over the other. States across the Southeast are demonstrating that America can attract data centers, strengthen communities, protect customers, and compete in the AI race at the same time.
That is a model worth scaling nationwide.
Brad Viator is President of Power for Tomorrow.
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