How the White House and governors want to fix AI-driven power shortages and price spikes

The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the mid-Atlantic power grid operator to take urgent action to boost energy supplies and curb rising prices, holding an event Friday aimed at addressing growing voter concern about the huge amount of energy being used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.

The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, wanted to try to force PJM Interconnection to hold electricity auctions so technology companies could bid on contracts to build new power plants.

The Trump administration and governors will sign a declaration of principles to that end on Friday. The plan was first reported by Bloomberg.

“Ensuring the American people have reliable, affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities, and it would provide much-needed long-term relief to the Mid-Atlantic region,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to be at the White House, a person familiar with Shapiro’s plans said, speaking on condition of anonymity before the announcement. Shapiro, a Democrat, conditioned his attendance at Friday’s event on the inclusion of a provision to extend a limit on wholesale electricity price increases for area consumers, the person said.

But the network manager will not be there. “PJM has not been invited. Therefore, we will not attend,” said spokesman Jeff Shields.

It was not immediately clear whether President Donald Trump would attend the event, which was not included in his public schedule.

Trump and governors are under pressure to protect consumers and businesses from the costs of powering big tech’s energy-intensive data centers. Meanwhile, more and more Americans are falling behind on their electricity bills.

Consumer advocates say ratepayers in the mid-Atlantic power grid — which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois to Washington, D.C. — are already paying billions of dollars in higher bills to cover the cost of powering data centers, some of them built, others not.

However, they also say the billions of dollars consumers are paying aren’t leading to the construction of new power plants needed to meet growing demand.

November’s crucial competitions will be decided by communities where electricity bills are rising rapidly or by fights over who will foot the bill for the data centers that underpin the explosion in demand for artificial intelligence. In some 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 key issue in last year’s gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hot spot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two incumbent Republicans for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission. Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York all cited economic concerns as a priority, as Democrats and Republicans prepare for a debate over affordability in the intensifying midterm battle to control Congress.

Gas and electric utilities have requested or received rate increases of more than $34 billion during the first three quarters of 2025, consumer advocacy organization PowerLines reported. This was more than double the same period a year earlier.