Gov. Phil Murphy is using his power to issue executive orders in a direct attempt to alleviate the impact of electricity rate hikes due to be imposed June 1.
Murphy on May 14 ordered the state Board of Public Utilities to evaluate all available funding to help stabilize utility bills. The rate increases June 1 are expected to be in the 17% to 20% range.
The governor is also directing the BPU to open a new proceeding on resource adequacy to evaluate proposals for bringing more electricity generating facilities into operation and to seek policy options to mitigate the impact on ratepayers from demand growth.
He is asking the four electricity distribution utilities that serve the Garden State to voluntarily extend their winter service termination plan for the summer. This would prevent disconnections from July through September. He also wants them to agree to suspend reconnection fees to a date past the summer peak usage months.
The BPU had already ordered the four utilities, one of which is Atlantic City Electric, to submit plans to defer rate increases until after the high-use summer season is over. A release from the governor’s office said that BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy briefed Murphy on what the BPU received from the utilities in response to the agency’s order, but that response has not yet been made public.
Also not made public is how a postponed rate hike, if enacted, would work when the summer is over.
Murphy said in his release that he wants to get the utilities to “share the load and commit to being part of the solution.”
Rising electricity rates have become a central issue in the 2025 election process that will select a new governor and fill all 80 seats in the Assembly.
Republicans have relentlessly attacked Murphy, Democrats in the Legislature, and the Murphy-appointed BPU as the source of failed energy policies that have led to power scarcity and soaring electricity supply rates. The focus for Republicans has been on the governor’s top-down push to create an offshore wind industry that would contribute renewable emission-free energy to the state’s grid.
Murphy places significant blame for the situation on multistate grid operator PJM Interconnection, an organization he has singled out for investigation for possible price manipulation. Guhl-Sadovy has been a vocal critic of state Republicans, who she says obstructed and delayed the development of offshore wind for political reasons.
Democrats have held hearings, introduced legislation and urged the BPU to take specific actions, to show voters a party actively seeking to reduce the hardship they fear will be blamed on them.
A May 14 press release from Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said, “We need to look at every available solution to address rising utility costs” and then shifts to the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate energy assistance programs.
A May 15 press release from Assembly Democrats lists nine bills that have been introduced and advanced through the Assembly Appropriations Committee, all having some relationship to the impending price increases.
The bills would widen access to assistance programs, establish a summer termination program for certain customers and require the BPU to incentivize transmission-scale energy storage, among other things. One bill would expedite construction code approval of applications to install residential solar energy systems.
PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields said in a statement that “New Jersey has insufficient generation in-state, continues to shut down power plants, and now heavily relies on imports to meet its consumer needs.” He added that “when supply decreases and demand increases, the net result is higher consumer costs.”
Murphy does have his supporters. The League of Conservation Voters praised Murphy’s actions in a May 14 release, saying, “We commend Governor Murphy for taking steps to ensure relief” from rising utility bills. Allison McLeod, the League’s deputy director, then made the pitch for clean energy, arguing that “until we get off dirty oil and gas, it is only going to get hotter – and the bills are going to keep going up.”
Republicans argue that Murphy is just trying to kick the can down the road to get the hikes out of the public eye until after the election. Voters will go to the polls on June 10 for the state primaries and again on Nov. 4 in the general election.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at [email protected].
