Statement by Danny Black, President and CEO, SouthernCarolina Alliance
News ClipWalterboro Live·SC·4/4/2026
President Trump and major tech companies have announced a "Ratepayer Protection Initiative" to prevent data center expansion from increasing electricity costs for consumers. Companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI are committing to covering infrastructure and energy needs. The initiative aims to assure South Carolinians about welcoming data centers.
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Danny Black, President and CEO of SouthernCarolina Alliance, applauded a new joint initiative led by President Trump and major technology companies to protect ratepayers from rising electricity costs due to data center expansion. Known as the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, this 2026 initiative requires participating tech firms, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Oracle, xAI, and OpenAI, to cover the full infrastructure and energy costs for their AI data centers, preventing these expenses from being passed to residential and small business customers.
The initiative encourages companies to develop their own on-site power generation facilities to alleviate strain on public electrical grids, addressing the substantial energy demands of AI development. SouthernCarolina Alliance views this as a crucial step to reassure South Carolinians that the state can continue to attract data centers as a vital economic component without burdening residents with additional costs.