The White House announced on July 23, 2026, that more than 200 additional utilities, data center developers, cooperatives, and states have joined the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a program designed to ensure that the electricity infrastructure costs associated with data center construction are borne by the technology companies involved rather than by American households and businesses.

What the Pledge Requires

The central commitment under the Ratepayer Protection Pledge is that large data center operators fund the electricity generation and infrastructure their projects require, rather than passing those costs onto utility customers.

The expansion announced this week brings the pledge to a scale where it now covers 80% of all power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses, and the White House says it protects 263 million Americans when a data center is built in their region.

The pledge builds on earlier commitments made by what the White House described as the nation's leading tech companies and hyperscalers earlier in 2026.

The March 4, 2026 proclamation and accompanying fact sheet laid the groundwork for the program, and subsequent state-level agreements have since followed in multiple states across the country.

State-by-State Agreements Already in Place

The White House outlined a series of specific agreements already in effect across several states, each carrying projected financial benefits for utility customers.

In Michigan, DTE Energy has entered into agreements with Google and Oracle that are projected to produce billions in customer savings, with the tech companies covering their full energy and capacity costs. The White House did not specify the precise dollar figure attributed to this arrangement.

In Indiana, NiSource has structured arrangements with Amazon and Alphabet that are set to return at least USD 1.4 billion to customers over a 15-year period.

The agreements require the companies to cover costs associated with their energy consumption and related infrastructure needs.

In Georgia, Southern Company has committed to freezing base rates through 2029 and delivering more than USD 1.7 billion in savings to customers. The White House stated that the typical residential customer would save more than $100 per year under this arrangement.

In Mississippi, Entergy's agreement with Amazon is generating roughly $2 billion in total customer benefits.

That arrangement includes full coverage by Amazon of new transmission and related costs associated with its data center operations.

In Wisconsin, Alliant Energy has entered into partnerships with data center developers, including QTS, under terms that require the companies to cover 100% of the energy and infrastructure costs needed to operate their facilities.

The arrangement also supports a five-year rate freeze for customers served by the utility. In Louisiana, Entergy has an agreement with Meta ensuring that Meta pays 100% of the costs to connect its Richland Parish data center to the grid.

In Texas, Crusoe is powering its new 900-megawatt Abilene campus entirely with its own on-site natural gas generation and battery storage, meaning the facility draws no power from the broader grid that would affect other ratepayers.

The Administration's Framing

President Trump characterized the expansion of the pledge as evidence that the United States can pursue dominance in artificial intelligence and advanced computing without requiring working families to subsidize that effort.

The White House described the pledge as an example of the administration leveraging private-sector partnerships to deliver price relief to Americans.

The announcement frames the initiative as consistent with a broader policy direction the administration has pursued under the banner of American energy dominance, a theme that the White House has returned to repeatedly since February 2026.

The ratepayer pledge, in the administration's telling, resolves a tension that had drawn concern from consumer advocates and state regulators: as the AI industry drives unprecedented demand for electricity, the question of who pays for the infrastructure expansion needed to meet that demand has significant implications for utility bills across the country.

Scope and Timeline of the Program

The Ratepayer Protection Pledge was first introduced through a presidential proclamation on March 4, 2026. A fact sheet released the same day outlined the administration's framework for the initiative, and on March 5, 2026, the White House announced what it described as a historic commitment from major technology companies to keep electricity costs down amid the data center boom.

The July 23 announcement marks the most significant expansion of participation to date, adding more than 200 entities to the pledge and pushing coverage to the 80% threshold the White House cited.

The combination of utilities, data center developers, cooperatives, and state-level participants reflects the range of actors involved in electricity delivery and generation across the country.

The White House did not provide a detailed breakdown of which specific utilities, cooperatives, or states joined the pledge in the latest expansion beyond the state-level examples already described.

The announcement did not include information about enforcement mechanisms or the process by which compliance with the pledge's terms would be verified.