The pledge would require data centers to pay the utility and infrastructure costs of their operations, not consumers.   

Governor Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) joined nearly half of the governors across the country in signing onto President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. 

The pledge would require AI companies and data center operators to pay the utility and infrastructure costs of data centers, rather than this cost being pushed onto consumers. 

“America’s continued economic and technological leadership depends on reliable, large-scale data center infrastructure built here at home. Data center infrastructure is the foundation of the internet, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), and supports our economic and national security,” said a release from the White House. 

“As demand for electricity continues to grow, we must protect consumers, strengthen our grid and ensure economic development is achieved without shifting costs onto the people we serve,” DeWine formerly said on the subject. 

The pledge reads, “We the undersigned pledge to implement the principles established in the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, to the greatest extent possible in our respective positions, in order to protect American consumers from price hikes due to data center energy and infrastructure requirements, and lower electricity costs for consumers in the long term while developing the infrastructure needed to maintain America’s economic and technological leadership.”

The action follows steps DeWine took in May when he announced a pause in consideration of new tax exemptions for data centers.

Ohio has the sixth-most data centers in the country at approximately 200, and there are plans to build even more.

Also this week, Senator John Husted (R-Ohio) introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act to protect American consumers from paying the utility costs of data centers. 

“If America wants to lead the world in AI and strengthen our national security, we have to build the energy infrastructure to support it. But we must do that without passing the costs on to working families and small businesses,” Husted said in a statement upon the bill’s introduction.  

The states that signed onto the pledge are all led by Republican governors. These include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 

“As that infrastructure grows and the related electricity demand increases, the American people should not be footing the bill for the benefit of private companies. Instead, the data center boom should be leveraged to address affordability and benefit all American households and businesses,” the White House release said.

“Importantly, they will pay these rates for the power and related infrastructure that are brought online to service their data centers, whether they use the electricity or not. This will protect the American people from increased utility bills as a result of the development of these data centers.”