President Donald J. Trump announced an expansion of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge on July 23, 2026, extending the agreement to cover governors, state legislators, energy developers, and utility providers.
According to officials, the expanded pledge now applies to 80 percent of all electricity delivered to American homes and businesses.
The announcement took place at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The policy aims to shield consumers from rising electricity costs associated with the rapid buildout of data centers across the country.
“The United States never settles for second, and we don’t under this administration… we live by the motto ‘America First,’” Trump said during the event. “Thanks in part to this incredible [AI] technology boom, investments are pouring into the United States from all over the world.”
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge was first introduced during the State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026. On March 4, seven major technology companies—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI—signed the agreement at the White House. Under the pledge, participating companies commit to building, supplying, or purchasing all the energy required for their facilities and covering all associated infrastructure costs.
“The global race for AI is underway, and America must win it — but not by asking working families to pay for it,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. “Communities that welcome these facilities deserve every fact in front of them and every protection behind them. That is what the Trump EPA has delivered, and that is what Ratepayer Protection Pledge builds on.”
The pledge includes five core provisions for signatories:
- Constructing, sourcing, or purchasing new power supplies.
- Funding all necessary grid and power delivery infrastructure upgrades.
- Paying set rates for power regardless of whether the energy is ultimately consumed.
- Investing in local workforce hiring and training programs.
- Coordinating with regional grid operators to provide backup power during high-demand periods.
The initiative expands on prior energy policies, including a January 2026 agreement between the National Energy Dominance Council and Mid-Atlantic governors. That deal aimed to clear the way for over $15 billion in new baseload power generation within the PJM market, while placing caps on capacity market payments for existing plants.
To support the expansion, the EPA has released several regulatory tools. In December 2025, the agency launched the Clean Air Act Resources for Data Centers webpage to provide guidance on permitting and air quality modeling.
In May 2026, the EPA introduced the Permitting Authority Map to help users identify local, state, tribal, or federal environmental permit issuers, alongside mapping tools to evaluate Brownfield and Superfund sites for industrial re-use.
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