The White House and a bipartisan group of state governors are pressing the Mid-Atlantic power grid operator to take urgent steps to boost energy supplies and limit rising prices, holding an event on Friday aimed at tackling the problem. Anxiety has increased among voters around Huge amount of energy used in artificial intelligence Ahead of elections later this year.
The White House said its National Energy Governance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to force PJM Interconnection to hold an energy auction for technology companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants.
The Trump administration and state governors will sign a statement of principles to achieve this goal on Friday. The plan was first reported by Bloomberg.
“Ensuring the American people have access to reliable, affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities, and this will provide much-needed long-term relief to the Mid-Atlantic region,” White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to be in the White House, said a person familiar with Shapiro’s plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement. Shapiro, a Democrat, made his participation in Friday’s event conditional on the inclusion of a provision to extend the cap on wholesale electricity price increases for consumers in the district, the source said.
But the network operator will not be there. Party spokesman Jeff Shields said: “The AKP was not invited. So we will not attend.”
It was not immediately clear whether President Donald Trump would attend the event, which was not on his public agenda.
Trump and the governors are Under pressure To insulate consumers and businesses alike from the costs of feeding Big Tech Energy-hungry Data centers. At the same time, there are more Americans He falls behind on their electricity bills.
Consumer advocates say taxpayers in the Mid-Atlantic power grid — which includes all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, plus Washington, D.C. — are already paying billions of dollars in higher bills to underwrite the cost of providing power to data centers, some built, some not.
However, they also say that the billions of dollars paid by consumers are not conducive to the construction of new power plants needed to meet growing demand.
Pivotal competitions This November will be decided by communities seeing rapidly rising electricity bills or battles over who will foot the bill for the data centers that support the explosion in demand for artificial intelligence. In parts of the country, data centers are coming online faster than power plants can be built and connected to the grid.
Electricity costs were a major issue last year Governor elections In New Jersey and Virginia, a data center connection point, and in Georgiawhere Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents to gain seats on the state Utility Regulatory Commission. Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City were all cited Economic concerns As the most important issue, while Democrats and Republicans are preparing to discuss it Affordability In the intense midterm battle for control of Congress.
Consumer advocacy organization Power Lines reported that gas and electric utilities sought or won more than $34 billion in rate increases in the first three quarters of 2025. That was more than double the same period a year earlier.