PANews reported on March 4 that the US political establishment is taking urgent action to mitigate the impact of soaring electricity costs on this year's congressional elections. The US Department of Energy has issued a record $26.5 billion in loans to help large utilities in the Southeast reduce costs of building new power plants in Georgia and Alabama. Meanwhile, the nation's largest grid operator has proposed capping wholesale prices, and some governors are considering freezing utility rates to curb electricity spending. This affordability crisis prompted the White House to convene a meeting with tech giants on Wednesday. Trump demanded that companies like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google's parent company Alphabet sign pledges to pay for energy-intensive data centers. These data centers have been blamed as the "culprits" driving up electricity prices: in areas where data centers are active, electricity costs are 267% higher than five years ago; and since 2020, consumer electricity prices across the US have increased by more than 30%.