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Trump Makes an Announcement on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Jul. 23, 2026

July 23, 2026 · The White House · 0:33:40

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump used a White House announcement on July 23, 2026 to report progress on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, the plan he said he introduced earlier this year under which, in his words, “America’s largest tech companies have formally committed to fund or build all energy infrastructure required to meet the demand they are placing on the grid” as new data centers go up. “You’re going to be building your own data centers and you’re going to be building your own electric plants,” he told the companies. “You’re essentially becoming a utility.”

The President said that “more than 220 utilities, tech companies, state governments, and other partners have signed our ratepayer protection pledge,” and that “electricity rates for 80% of the power distributed in America are now being kept in check by the plan.” He cited American Electric Power’s projection, as he stated it, of “as much as $16 billion in cost offsets for consumers” from its data center contracts, and Alliant Energy data center deals that he said are allowing the utility to freeze electric rates for consumers for at least five years. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin attended; Trump credited Interior Secretary Doug Burgum with recommending Wright for the Energy job.

Why it matters

The pledge is the administration’s answer to the central cost question of the AI build-out — who pays for the power data centers consume — and this chronicle tracks it on the Energy & Permitting hub through Wright’s Energy Department and Zeldin’s EPA, both of whom were in the room.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: a dated implementation claim set for the Ratepayer Protection Pledge (220+ signatories; 80% of distributed power covered; the AEP $16 billion offset projection and the Alliant five-year rate freeze, all as stated by the President). Flagged for the scoreboard editor; the entry itself stays review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Makes an Announcement on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” July 23, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President at the announcement.