By Matt Rooney
If you paid only cursory attention to New Jersey’s Election 2025? You probably walked away knowing the following:
- Jack is a Jersey Guy
- Mikie flew helicopters
- Mikie is going to freeze your electric bills
Bold colors win, so even though we KNEW it was bullshit, candidate Mikie Sherrill won largely on the promise of freezing utility bills (and a well-timed TDS outbreak fueled by the last government shutdown).
How’s it going two months in? After now-Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a “State of Emergency on Utility Costs”?
Nowhere from what I can tell. She sure isn’t acting like there’s an “emergency.”
She did, however, set up a federal Super PAC. New Jersey is well-acquainted with governors who talk a big game but then almost immediately start focusing on national politics. She’s also sued or joined active litigation against the Trump Administration at least four times to date. Has an AG lawsuit ever made anyone richer? Other than some of the lawyers? Her FY 2027 budget proposal contains millions in aid and subsidies for illegal aliens.
On the utility bill front… Sherrill has been decidedly less aggressive in advocating for the Garden State. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has met five times since inauguration day – most recently on March 18th – with no meaningful action towards (1) lowering utility bills or even (2) freezing them. Other than a few performative executive orders, the Democrat governor is now about to begin her fourth calendar month in office without even trying to make a real dent in residential energy costs after a brutal (and therefore expensive) winter.
Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R, NJ-02) has been one of the loudest voices calling upon Governor Sherrill to make good on her as-of-yet unrealized promises.
“People in South Jersey are opening their bills and seeing something that just does not make sense,” said Congressman Van Drew this week. “In many cases, the delivery fees are higher than the cost of electricity itself. That is not normal, and it is not acceptable. For years, the state made bad decisions. They shut down reliable energy sources like nuclear, gas, and coal plants, including Beesley’s Point coal plant, which was supposed to be converted to natural gas but was instead shut down. They took dependable power off the grid and never replaced it. Instead, they poured billions into offshore wind projects that were never going to deliver affordable, reliable energy. Now we are forced to import energy from other states at a much higher cost, and that failure is being dumped directly onto the backs of our residents through these outrageous delivery fees.”
Van Drew is a sponsor or co-sponsor of three federal bills which would aid ratepayers:
- H.R. 1148 which takes aim at “Societal Benefit” delivery charges.
- H.R. 5896 would repeal federal EV standards
- H.R. 7991 bars RGGI charges from being imposed on energy consumers
Unfortunately, as the former state senator from Cape May County readily concedes, exploding energy costs are best addressed by the states.
“The Governor and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities have the authority to fix this, and they need to act now. I am once again calling on them to repeal these excessive delivery fees. The root of this problem lies at the state level,” added Van Drew. “My hands are virtually tied here, but I am trying desperately at the federal level to help where I can. I have recently introduced a package of bills aimed at stopping unnecessary charges and protecting families from being forced to pay for costly energy programs. But the reality is that this is not a priority for every state because many states do not have this problem. At the end of the day, this problem was created by the past Governor, and it has to be fixed by this Governor.”
