The Trump administration announced that it would work with states to ensure that the nationwide artificial intelligence race does not drive up the costs of electricity for millions of Americans.
Federal officials said they would push PJM, the largest grid operator, to strike deals with top technology companies to ensure that the bill for boosting the nation’s power supply falls on the likes of Facebook, Google and OpenAI, not individuals.
The demand for electricity — along with the price — has soared as Silicon Valley pours billions of dollars into the construction of power-hungry data centers to enable its ambitions in AI. The average electricity bill jumped by 5% in October compared with the same month one year earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration.
But experts said the Trump administration’s plans were unlikely to lower prices quickly because it may take time to address the matter through regulation. Even then, it could be years before investments actually translate into greater electricity production, lowering consumers’ bills.
The White House directive appeared to hinge on the participation of technology giants and PJM, which serves all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, a swath of that includes the largest concentration of data centers in the United States. The Trump administration and state leaders said they wanted to see PJM protect ratepayers from price increases.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said in a statement that the goal was to ensure that the government was “powering the mid-Atlantic and part of the Midwest’s future without charging its citizens a cent.”
PJM was reviewing the administration’s plans, said Jeff Shields, a spokesperson for the grid operator, adding that it was not invited to an event Friday at the White House.
Voters have cited the cost and local impact of data centers as a top issue in recent elections, and the White House is scrambling to convince the public that the economy is trending in a positive direction.
On Tuesday, Microsoft said it had asked local regulators to “set our rates high enough to cover the electricity costs for our data centers,” a move that Trump later heralded, as he promised more action to bring down costs.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.