Trump's promise to shield communities from rising prices is doomed to failure: analysis

President Donald Trump made a standout promise during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday: to push big tech companies to generate their own power onsite for AI data centers, shielding local communities from the rising energy prices that these data centers tend to cause. It's a promise that comes as even many of Trump's own supporters are revolting against the buildout that is a key part of his administration's technology agenda.

But the president's ability to actually protect people's energy bills with this plan is limited at best, Politico reported on Wednesday.

"The artificial intelligence industry’s rising demand for power lines, fuel, natural gas turbines, critical minerals, vacant land and other electric-grid essentials is already helping drive up power bills," said the report. "And Trump’s assertion during the State of the Union that technology companies can pay for their own power generation would address only some of those causes of rising prices, energy industry experts told POLITICO."

The problem is that even if tech companies generate 100 percent of the power they need for their data centers, the buildout of the infrastructure to do that would take years, and in turn drive up the price of turbines, copper, and other power generation equipment and raw materials, which would still put pressure on utility companies to raise prices.

Johns Hopkins University energy researcher Abe Silverman told Politico the situation is like if a ticket for a Taylor Swift concert could be sold to anyone anywhere. "That’s the way a lot of data center developers feel right now,” he explained. “It’s unfortunate, but I think it’s a reality that we’re in a bit of a bidding war.”

"Nearly 680 data centers are being planned in the United States, according to the data firm Cleanview, requiring the energy-equivalent of 186 large nuclear power plants," said the report. "The hulking, concrete structures packed with electricity-guzzling servers are powering the AI models that Silicon Valley hails as the forge behind the next industrial revolution. Some of those AI hubs are so big they would require enough electricity to power millions of homes."

Already, local battles are playing out over the construction of data centers, as residents protest the resource drain from their communities — with some fights taking place in key battleground states like Georgia.