White House, governors seek to fix AI-driven power shortages, price spikes

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is working to boost the energy supply and curb price hikes for consumers. Yeah, he led a bipartisan group of governors at the White House today to partner with President Trump on the issue and also make an urgent announcement. And that's where we turn to our Nidia Han, who's live in the studio with the details on that. Nidia. Yeah, this affects all of us. The energy shortage is driven by the enormous amount of power consumed by data centers to support AI. And advocates say consumers are basically underwriting the cost of those centers in the form of higher bills to cover upgrades in transmission or distribution and wholesale electricity prices. So Governor Shapiro and others are putting additional pressure on PJM, the operator of the Mid-Atlantic power grid, to take action. We have worked together, the governors have together with the administration in partnership in trying to reform PJM, force them to cancel their scheduled price hikes for families in Pennsylvania and across our multi-state region for the last three years. Governor Josh Shapiro at the White House today signing a group statement of principles calling on PJM Interconnected to take steps to provide reliable, affordable power. Unfortunately, what we have seen in our region is that PJM has been too damn slow to let new generation onto the grid at a time where energy demand is going up. That has in part led to dramatically increasing prices in PJM's capacity auctions year after year, which in effect just simply means higher prices for consumers in our respective states. Shapiro announced today one principle is an extension of a price cap on wholesale electricity, which he says will save consumers on the PJM grid an additional $27 billion over the next couple of years. The governor also promised to work with large data center developers like Amazon to bring more affordable power online, as environmental groups call for more renewable sources of energy. We need to address the structural deficiencies that exist and one of the biggest structural deficiencies that exist in Pennsylvania is our over-reliance on one form of energy to provide our electricity. It's driving up prices, it's making our grid less reliable. We need a balanced portfolio to lower costs for consumers and ensure that we can all keep the lights on. Now, PJM tells me it is reviewing the principles set forth by the White House and the governor. It says its board has been deliberating on large load additions for months and will release its decision on that later today. PJM also says it will work with its stakeholders to assess how the White House directive aligns with the board's decision. I actually emailed PJM right before I came out here. I have yet to hear back, so we will update you on the board's decision as soon as we get it. All right, Lydia, thank you.