@theaihater: President Trump’s pitch to towns fighting data centers was simple. Take the money, because somebody else will. At EPA headquarters on July 23, he expanded the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a nonbinding commitment from 23 governors and 187 companies to shield household bills. Trump said bills would fall as data centers push surplus power into the grid. “You can’t fight it. You have to go with it,” he said. Consultancy ICF projects household bills rising 15% to 40% by 2030, and a Gallup survey in March found 71% of Americans oppose a local data center. Compute buildout used to be a story about chips and capital. It is now an electricity bill and a campaign issue.