Nearly 200 organizations across the United States have signed the “Rate Payer Protection Pledge,” an initiative aimed at preventing increases in electricity bills for ordinary consumers due to the construction of infrastructure for artificial intelligence. The list of participants includes the largest energy companies and data center operators.
It is expected that new members of this initiative will soon be announced by Donald Trump. According to a list obtained by The Wall Street Journal, the participating organizations supply approximately 80% of the electricity delivered to homes and businesses in the U.S. Previously, the pledge was signed by leaders from Google, Meta*, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI.
The initiative was introduced in March amid criticism over rising energy consumption linked to the development of generative AI and the construction of large-scale data centers. The document includes several general provisions stating that AI developers should bear the costs of new infrastructure needed to train and run large models, ensuring these expenses are not passed on to ordinary consumers.
However, the participation of energy companies has not alleviated concerns over the impact of the AI boom on the energy market. In the U.S., some data center projects have already been scaled back or blocked due to public backlash, while the country’s largest grid operator, PJM, anticipates an additional $6.3 billion in costs for consumers across 13 states as a result of increased demand from data centers.
For companies, the commitment remains voluntary and carries no penalties for non-compliance. Enforcing it is challenging because electricity rates in the U.S. are typically regulated at the state level and depend on decisions made by state regulators and energy market participants, rather than the federal government.
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