South Jersey legislators say data centers are inevitable, so they’re focused on enacting guardrails and protecting residents from increased energy costs.
Senator John Burzichelli and Assemblyman Dave Bailey, Democrats who represent New Jersey’s 3rd legislative district along with Assemblywoman Heather Simmons, sponsored legislation enacted in July to ensure large data center owners pay the costs associated with their electricity use. The state also needs to find and encourage new sources of power, they said.
Artificial intelligence data centers have been driving up electricity demand and rates across New Jersey. In South Jersey, a massive project is under construction in Vineland.
“We can’t stand still. Change is coming,” Burzichelli told business owners Wednesday at a breakfast organized by the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey (CCSNJ). “The key is how do we manage it to the best interest of all of us.”
The 3rd legislative district includes parts of all of Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties. For years, the largely rural region has struggled with a lack of transportation options for residents to reach jobs, medical care and education.
High taxes, rising energy and health care costs and persistent housing and transportation gaps are the most pressing issues for the region’s economy, the legislators said during the event, held at the family-owned Coombs Barnyard in Elmer.
“South Jersey is the story of people born and raised in farm communities with brains and ambition, but in rural areas that lack transportation, that often lack the access to health care and education and other services that many of us take for granted,” Simmons said.
The key is bringing down costs to live in and do business in New Jersey, along with lifting regulatory hurdles and increasing transportation options, the legislators said.
These are not new goals. But the legislators pointed to some recent successes, such as the new SJ Connects, a free shuttle linking residents to hospitals, shopping, education and mass transit across the state’s southern counties. The CCSNJ lobbied for the program, which NJ Transit is funding under a $5 million pilot grant.
“That kind of creativity to build reliable, affordable and well-placed and well-thought-out public transportation options is what is going to make businesses choose to locate here, to grow here, to invest here, and stay here,” Simmons said. “And that’s what we need.”
