President Donald Trump is set to announce “ratepayer protection pledges” from major tech companies during his State of the Union address Tuesday (February 24), aimed at shielding consumers from rising electricity costs driven by the rapid expansion of data centers across the country.
Listen to President Donald Trump deliver the State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET on iHeartRadio’s 24/7 News station.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a White House official confirmed that the pledges would require tech companies to cover increased electricity costs in areas where new data centers are built.
It’s not yet clear which companies will be part of the announcement, though Microsoft and Anthropic have already released their own plans related to consumer electricity costs. Electricity rates in the United States rose an average of 6.3 percent in January compared to a year earlier, and data centers are expected to be a major factor in pushing those prices even higher in the years ahead.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement that “the President will proudly tout his Administration’s many record-breaking accomplishments, and also lay out an ambitious agenda to continue bringing the American Dream back for working people.” A senior White House official also told The Hill last month, “We are going to embrace data centers, but not at the price… of raising costs for consumers.”
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