President Donald Trump is set to make a major announcement about safeguarding Americans from a common concern that stems from burgeoning data centers nationwide. The 47th president is expected to announce at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C. a coalition of legislators, tech leaders, and utility CEOs who together have pledged not to pass along utility costs to customers as data centers continue to be erected nationwide.

Ratepayer Protection Pledge

The coalition, called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, includes 23 governors — all Republicans. Four of them will be present at the event with the president. Trump is expected to make the announcement alongside Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Some Americans are skeptical of data centers, and for a variety of different reasons. One of those being the potential for skyrocketing energy costs stemming from the massive facilities, which are largely being built by major tech companies to power the growing artificial intelligence sector.

Data centers house computer servers, data storage systems, and networking equipment like routers and switches. They require large amounts of electricity and water, especially to power their own cooling systems.

President Trump signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge alongside those tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, OpenAI, xAI, and Oracle, in March. Since then, demand to join the coalition has exploded among governors, utility CEOs, and data center development companies, who will also sign onto the president’s pledge. A White House official said 200 stakeholders have signed the pledge.

The rollout of data centers is a critical Trump administration economic priority, but rollouts of new centers have been subject to protests nationwide.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.