By New Jersey Chapter Director Anjuli Ramos-Busot • anjuli.ramos@sierraclub.org
Editor’s note: This commentary was published in April 2025 on NJ.com.
New Jersey’s utility bills are already some of the highest in the nation, and they are about to get even higher. New Jerseyans want to power their homes and businesses with affordable and reliable energy, without the uncertainty of rising rates from year to year. It’s time to address the real cause of rising rates with solutions that will keep costs down.
The demand for electricity across our regional grid is rising at an unprecedented rate. With the increase in the number of data centers and with new manufacturing sites set to come online, our regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, is rightly feeling the pressure of managing energy supply and demand. PJM is the entity that operates the power grid in our region, which includes 13 states and Washington, DC. It decides which power sources will supply our electricity.
However, PJM continues to double down on expensive, inefficient, and outdated energy sources, which is driving up costs. PJM even sent a letter to President Trump on behalf of fossil fuel companies asking for his help in propping up aging coal plants in the region. Our regional grid is mostly dominated by fossil fuel and nuclear generation, with solar and wind only contributing about 7% by the beginning of this year.
Data show that states that rely on natural gas for electricity generation—as New Jersey does (49%)—are among those with the highest rate of retail price increases. As a matter of fact, New Jerseyans are already paying among the steepest rates in the country for their electricity, with the state’s average residential rate being 23% higher than the national average.
According to an April 2025 Synapse Energy Economics report released by Evergreen Collaborative, PJM is on course to spike residential electric bills almost 60% over the next 10 to 15 years. However, if PJM allows the deployment of more cost-effective clean energy generation, residential electricity bills could fall by 20% over the same time, saving households huge amounts of money.
In New Jersey, this would be an average savings of $405 a year per household through 2040. The study also finds that New Jersey would see as many as 23,000 jobs created annually—if the new energy generation plants include solar, wind, and battery storage, which are job intensive. That means real, tangible savings and jobs for families in New Jersey.
Dragging Its Feet
When it comes to adding low-cost, clean sources of electricity to the grid, PJM is simply dragging its feet. Energy generators across the region continue to propose clean energy projects, such as wind and solar paired with battery storage, given their quick-to-build and low-cost advantages; however, these are stuck in the PJM interconnection queue. This delay jeopardizes the viability of projects and is leading to significantly increased costs of electricity for New Jersey ratepayers.
In response to the upcoming steep rate hikes in New Jersey and the region, Gov. Phil Murphy and other states in the PJM grid have been calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate whether PJM’s flawed processes have been subject to market manipulation.
A balanced energy approach requires us to let the market build what it wants: more low-cost clean energy. By doing that, electricity rates will fall and New Jersey families’ power bills will actually decrease significantly below current levels in the long term. Conversely, if we leave it to business as usual at PJM, New Jerseyans’ power bills will soar, thereby increasing hardship and reducing the quality of life for millions of state residents.
As New Jersey considers state-level solutions to the pressing issue of rising electricity rates, we must accept the truth: Fossil fuels and PJM are no longer serving our wallets or our state.