Gov. Bill Lee signed on to President Donald Trump’s pledge to make sure ratepayers are not paying for data centers.
On Thursday, the Republican Governors Association announced Lee and 23 other governors signed on to the pledge.
“Republican governors across the country understand the AI boom should cut your power bill, not spike it,” the association said on social media. “That’s why they’re backing President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection pledge, making sure American families come first.”
The pledge says AI companies will “build, bring, or buy all of the energy needed for building and operating data centers, paying the full cost of their energy and infrastructure, no matter what.”
“As part of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, companies agree 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, including by,” the pledge adds.
No Democratic governor has signed on to Trump’s pledge.
In addition to the Republican governors, the White House announced that over 200 data center-related companies have signed his pledge to ensure data centers will not raise electricity prices for ratepayers.
The White House said the companies that have signed onto the pledge cover 80% of all power delivered to American homes.
In Tennessee, numerous local governments have implemented temporary bans on new data centers within their local jurisdiction. The biggest county to take action against data centers in Tennessee so far has been Davidson County, which decided to issue a temporary moratorium on data centers until December 1st.
The City of Knoxville and Knox County have issued one-year bans on new data centers. Other local governments, such as Coffee County, Wilson County and Hamilton County, have also implemented new data center bans.
The City of St. Joseph and Hawkins County have outright banned data centers.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.
Background Photo “Data Center” by Chad Davis. CC BY 2.0.
