The White House fact sheet calls on the PJM regional grid operator to hold a one-time emergency auction to spur new power generation and require tech companies to fund new capacity.
On January 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) issued a White House fact sheet outlining a plan to strengthen electricity reliability and curb rising costs in the Mid-Atlantic region by urging the PJM Interconnection grid operator to hold an emergency auction for new power plants. The initiative would aim to build more than $15 billion in new baseload generation and require data centers to pay for generation capacity built on their behalf.
The fact sheet states the action is intended to address shortfalls and rising wholesale electricity prices in the PJM region, which serves multiple Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states. It follows President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency earlier this term.
Under the proposal, PJM would conduct a one-time “emergency procurement auction” to provide long-term revenue certainty (15-year contracts) for new power plants. The fact sheet says this would protect residential customers by limiting how much existing plants can be paid in PJM’s capacity market and allocating the costs of additional generation to large energy users, such as data centers, rather than to ratepayers.
“High electricity prices are a choice,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright in the fact sheet, adding that past closures of coal and natural gas plants have contributed to grid vulnerabilities and price increases. “That’s why President Trump asked governors across the Mid-Atlantic to come together and call upon PJM to allow America to build big, reliable power plants again.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the initiative would ensure that new power plants needed for AI and data center growth are funded by technology companies, not taxpayers.
Separately, a Statement of Principles regarding PJM signed on January 15, 2026, by NEDC officials and a bipartisan group of governors, urges states to use their authorities to allocate new capacity costs to data centers and to protect residential customers.
The fact sheet and White House-linked documents, by themselves, do not change federal law or compel PJM to act; any emergency auction would require approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.