Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to halve electricity prices within 18 months of taking office. With more than half of that period now elapsed, it seems that the president will fall well short of his goal.
In October, the most recent month for which data are available, the annual price of residential electricity jumped by 5.2 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. While there are myriad reasons for these price hikes, including Trump's own trade policies, AI and data centers have taken much of the blame from policymakers. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) recently suggested enacting a federal moratorium on data center construction, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) has opened an investigation into the role that data centers play in driving up electricity costs.
