By Roman Aglaganov
President Donald Trump said on 21 October that new large data centres must generate their own electricity and should pay the communities that host them. “New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data Centers are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid,” he wrote on Truth Social. He said this could bring “a substantial decrease” in electricity prices.
In another post he said developers who want local support should pay the community “and/or individuals within the community” a “dividend”.
What it is, and is not
No executive order, directive or rule has been issued, Yahoo Finance reported. The posts named no dollar amount, size threshold, payment formula or agency to enforce them. Earlier in October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected efforts to require data centres to bring their own generation to the largest US grid system, according to the same report.
In a local TV interview published on 19 October, Trump praised a place where “everybody in the community got $10,000”. Developers of a proposed Amazon Web Services campus in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, made exactly that offer to residents, who rejected the project this month.
The politics
Electricity bills have become a midterm issue, and data centres face local opposition across the country. Talking Points Memo reported that Republican candidates had been pushing Trump towards this position for months. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in September that data centres “ought to be able to take care of their own utilities, their own power”.
Why it matters
Who pays for AI’s electricity is becoming one of the central questions in American politics. Asking data centres to bring their own power answers part of it. But a cheque does nothing about the noise, water use and lost farmland that neighbours complain about most, and until there is a rule, nobody is obliged to do anything.
