Trump and Mid-Atlantic governors want tech companies to pay for new power plants

The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the PJM Interconnection, the biggest electricity market in the US, to hold a power auction meant to spur a massive buildout of new power plants.

PJM operates the largest electricity grid in the US, which spans 13 states across the Midwest and Atlantic and includes the concentration of data centers in Virginia. The governors of all states, including Democrats Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and Wes Moore (D-MD) signed onto the statement issued today with Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. CNN notes, however, that neither the White House nor governors can mandate the auction. And Bloomberg reports that PJM wasn’t invited to the announcement made today.

The Department of Energy (DOE) says data centers should “​​pay more for new generation than residential customers.” Specifically, it calls on PJM to allocate costs for new infrastructure to data centers unless they bring their own power plants online or agree to curtail their energy use during supply crunches. The auction could lead to $15 billion in new power generation, according to the DOE.

While the Trump administration has pushed for a resurgence of coal, gas, and nuclear power plants in the US, it has simultaneously worked to stymie the buildout of wind and solar farms that had become the fastest growing sources of new electricity in recent years.