(The Lion) — Big Tech must be held legally accountable, says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, and President Donald Trump’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” is a step in the right direction.

In an exclusive interview with The Lion, the Republican senator explained how legislation he introduced in February would do just that.

The Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers (GRID) Act is aimed at protecting ratepayers from shouldering the financial burden of Big Tech’s artificial intelligence (AI) expansion by requiring new data centers to use energy sources separate from the power grid.

“These are the richest corporations in the world. They can pay for their own stuff,” Hawley said. “Whatever their power needs are, they’ve got to provide for it themselves.”

The “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” – announced and signed by Trump and seven major tech companies Wednesday – asks companies to “build, bring or buy” new energy sources to support their needs. Other portions of the pledge note that companies should coordinate with grid operators to reinforce the power grid and to invest in the communities where they construct data centers.

“I’ve introduced legislation that would require every data center that comes into the state of Missouri – or any state for that matter – to pay their own way, pay their own electricity costs, build out their power supply [and] pay their own water bills,” Hawley continued. “I think we ought to guarantee to every single ratepayer [and] every working person in Missouri: your rates are not going to go up because of some data center.”

Hawley emphasized that the “most important piece” of the legislation is requiring tech companies to “build their own power supply.”

“The idea that they [tech companies] would come to Missouri and ask for Missourians to pay for their electricity, or that they would take away power supply, or kick people off the grid – that’s ridiculous, and we ought to just ban that by legislation,” Hawley told The Lion, noting that his legislation would mandate companies to be “absolutely clear on what it is they actually require when it comes to power.”

“Nobody should have their electricity bills go up because some data center is gobbling up all of the grid,” Hawley said. “Ratepayers ought to come first. Missouri taxpayers, Missouri consumers, working people, ought to come first.”

American energy demand is on the rise after years of remaining essentially static, the uptick driven primarily by the demands of data centers, onshore manufacturing and electrification.

Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in the Oval Office last year, and his Department of Energy (DOE) has issued several emergency orders to keep coal plants from early retirement as it has warned of America’s troubled power grid. In July, the DOE projected that blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 by 2030 if the U.S. continued to phase out reliable energy sources without adequately replacing them.

Even so, legislation such as Hawley’s is likely needed to put teeth to policies and pledges from the administration.

Cato’s Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Studies Travis Fisher told The Lion it’s unclear how the White House can hold tech companies to the pledge.

“Where are the teeth? How is this actually going to be enforced? And what does a pledge mean, anyway?” Fisher asked, noting that how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) operationalizes the pledge will ultimately determine its impact.

Fisher is also wary of executive branch intervention in AI development, which brings “uncomfortable” implications for free market advocates.

“What does [this intervention] look like if the next president doesn’t agree with Trump on data centers?” Fisher asked, though he added that the effort comes with a “giant caveat:” effective execution.

The White House emphasized the significance of seven major companies signing the pledge with the president. “Seven of the world’s largest tech companies came to the White House to sign President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, inking their commitment to the President and the American people,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Lion in a statement. “The Administration will continue working with these companies to implement the terms of the pledge.”

Besides the energy implications of AI, Hawley has challenged Big Tech to take responsibility for the harms it’s caused families and especially youth.

Hawley told The Lion he has “talked to too many parents who have lost children to self-harm and suicide at the behest of an AI chatbot.”

Hawley introduced bipartisan legislation in October to ban AI companions for minors and to “create new crimes for companies who make AI for minors that solicits or produces sexual content.”

“I think of one kid, his name was Adam. He was from the state of California, 16 years old. Great kid, star athlete, great student, great family,” Hawley said, explaining that Adam began using AI for a science assignment before the chatbot began to engage him in emotional conversation, introduced Adam to the idea of self-harm and coached him to take his own life.

“Tragically, he did it in exactly the way the chatbot instructed,” Hawley said. “I think we ought to just say flat out that AI companies are not allowed to target minor children with AI chatbot companions. … No amount of profit justifies the destruction of our children’s lives.”