Governor Mike DeWine has signed President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, joining 22 other Republican governors in supporting an effort aimed at preventing the cost of powering large data centers from being passed on to residential utility customers.
The non-binding pledge encourages data center developers and electric utilities to ensure companies pay for the energy infrastructure needed to support the rapidly growing industry while protecting consumers from higher electric bills.
In announcing his support, DeWine pointed to Ohio’s recently approved data center tariff for American Electric Power, which requires new large-scale data centers to pay for at least 85 percent of their contracted electric capacity.
Ohio is home to about 240 existing or planned data centers, making it one of the nation’s leading states for the rapidly expanding industry fueled by artificial intelligence and cloud computing. While state leaders have promoted data center development for its economic benefits, some communities have raised concerns about increased electricity demand, water use and environmental impacts.
The pledge was first introduced by the White House in March and has also been signed by several major technology companies, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI and xAI. Although the agreement is voluntary, it calls on participants to help ensure the growing demand for electricity from data centers does not increase costs for households and small businesses.
