Communities across the US have been pushing back against the rapid expansion of data centers built to power artificial intelligence. Residents and local officials rightly argue that facilities consume large amounts of electricity and water, strain power grids, and cause noise and environmental impacts in nearby neighborhoods.
Now it appears that President Donald Trump and Big Tech are trying to put a lid on those concerns. Some of the biggest AI producers met at the White House on Wednesday to sign Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” a nonbinding promise to shoulder the cost of powering data centers and cooling vast arrays of servers.
Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI signed the agreement.
“This means that the tech companies and the data centers will be able to get the electricity they need, all without driving up electricity costs for consumers,” Trump said at the signing. “This is a historic win for countless American families, and we’ll also make our electricity grid stronger and more resilient than ever before.”
As CNET has explored, data centers use a staggering amount of water, and the reason is fairly simple. AI servers heat up as they process billions of prompts and questions from people around the world. Two Google data centers in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumed 1.4 billion gallons of water in 2024, and Meta’s data centers also used about 1.39 billion gallons of water in 2023.
Cities and towns across the US have either stopped or are trying to stop the construction of data centers. Tucson, Arizona, and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, were among 25 communities that prevented projects in 2025. Residents highlight environmental degradation — data centers can take up huge amounts of land — and the rising cost of utility rates.
There’s also the electricity needed to power data centers as big as several city blocks. According to one estimate (PDF), a chatbot query requires 10 times as much electricity as a Google search. And OpenAI says it handles more than 2.5 billion AI prompts per day.
A 2025 study by Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University found that by 2030, electricity bills could rise by 8% — and by 25% in some locations — due to the cost of data centers.
Amid the skyrocketing cost of everyday goods and utilities, it would be fair to conclude that the Trump administration’s recent moves are intended to allay affordability concerns and defuse public outcry.
“Some data centers were rejected by communities for that, and now I think it’s going to be just the opposite,” Trump said at Wednesday’s signing.
The devil in the details
The White House said the Ratepayer Protection Pledge requires the following four pillars from AI companies:
- Provide new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades
- Negotiate separate rate structures with utilities and state governments and pay these rates
- Coordinate with grid operators to make backup generation resources available in emergencies to prevent blackouts and shortages
- Promise to hire and train talent from within the communities where they build and operate
However, the devil will be in the details — and the enforcement. Critics have pointed out that the Trump administration’s cozy political and financial ties with major technology firms overshadow concerns about AI safety. A pledge is an unenforceable, voluntary agreement, and the task will fall to others to make it real.
For example, the Ratepayer Protection Pledge doesn’t say how companies will be forced to comply or what penalties they will face if they don’t. Bloomberg cited anonymous Trump administration sources who said it will be up to local utilities and states to enforce the pledge provisions through the negotiated rate structures. The officials also said tech firms must get government approval and federal licensing to build the data centers.
Moreover, the pledge doesn’t mention limiting the potential environmental impacts of data centers.
Some of the pledge signers, including Amazon, Meta, Oracle and Google, affirmed their commitments online. But it remains to be seen whether this will bring any relief to US households — or mollify critics.
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