Washington, D.C. – Today, President Donald Trump spoke at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., to announce a major expansion of the voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge. The event focused on shielding regular consumers from electricity price hikes driven by AI data center growth.
In response, America’s Power President and CEO Michelle Bloodworth issued the following statement:
“America’s Power is pleased to take the Ratepayer Protection Pledge to prevent electricity ratepayers from bearing the costs of electricity for data centers. One of the best ways to provide power for data centers is to take advantage of our existing coal fleet. The capacity factor (how hard a power plant runs) for the coal fleet averaged almost 50% last year. In the past, the coal fleet operated at a capacity factor of 70%. This means the existing coal fleet is being underutilized and can generate more of the electricity that is needed by data centers without incurring the cost of new power plants and expensive infrastructure that can take years to build. In fact, we urge FERC and grid operators to provide incentives for data centers to acquire their electricity from existing coal power plants.”