GOP Governors, Utilities Join Trump's Data Center Cost Pledge

Montana, Wyoming and Missouri's Republican governors have signed onto President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, according to Politico, joining the seven big tech companies who signed in March. The move that makes this expansion more than a photo op is that electric utilities, including Southern Co., Duke Energy and Exelon, are reportedly next in line.

The nonbinding pledge commits data center developers to cover the full costs of powering their facilities: energy and water use, grid improvements and maintenance, plus separate rate structures negotiated with utilities and state governments. Politico names Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe as the governor-side signers, alongside a March 2026 tech cohort of Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI.

The context for why this is landing now: Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the reporting shows average U.S. electricity prices have risen 4 percent in the last 12 months, outpacing overall inflation, and federal forecasts see more increases ahead. The politics of who pays for that extra load is now live, and the pledge is the White House's answer.

The honest caveat is in the word nonbinding. Politico notes that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office called it Republicans playing politics with pledges they will not keep, and that Democratic governors in Colorado and North Carolina reported no White House outreach. What the reporting does not give you is any dollar figure attached to a state or utility commitment, or an enforcement mechanism if a developer later argues its costs really do need to be socialized.

The forward-looking piece is that the real decisions still happen at state utility commissions and in rate cases. Bringing named utilities into the same voluntary text as Amazon and OpenAI is useful cover for those coming fights, and it lines up Republican-led states as friendly venues for hyperscale build-out.