A photo op to sign a voluntary pledge while the president continues sabotaging the cheapest new energy sources available is not a solution. Photo ops don’t pay your electric bill.

Following today’s White House pledge signing ceremony with Big Tech executives on rising energy prices from data center expansion, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt released the following statement:

“Trump’s data center pledge is just another promise to lower energy prices that is worth less than the paper it’s written on. We’ve been here before: Trump promised to cut Americans’ energy bills in half. He didn’t. Electricity prices are up more than 7% year over year, and the average household paid $537 more last year than it would have under Trump’s promised cut. 

“This voluntary agreement has zero enforcement mechanisms, and ratepayers have no way to verify what’s actually agreed to when Big Tech signs deals with utilities. And these companies have a documented history of announcing lofty targets and then abandoning them. Trump has made it his mission to let Big Tech companies that cozied up to him run buck wild without any standards to protect Americans from rising costs. Now that energy prices have skyrocketed due to his corporate polluter-first policies, Trump is trying to cover up his mistakes with a photo op.

“The real solution to the energy affordability crisis—cheap, fast-to-build wind, solar, and battery storage—is the one Trump has spent his entire presidency sabotaging. He’s canceled and blocked thousands of clean energy projects, propped up expensive coal plants with billions in taxpayer dollars, and expanded gas exports that are driving up domestic prices. A photo op to sign a voluntary pledge while the president continues sabotaging the cheapest new energy sources available is not a solution. Photo ops don’t pay your electric bill.”

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