Gov. Mikie Sherrill, in her first acts since taking office Tuesday, signed two executive orders addressing energy concerns in the state.
Executive order No. 1 delivers immediate ratepayer relief and freezes rate hikes for New Jersey families;
Executive order No. 2 takes action to massively expand in-state power generation – including solar and battery storage in the short-term, and nuclear power in the long-term, in an effort to lower electric bills.
Whether these orders have their desired effect remains to be seen; the issues around energy costs are deep in scope. But they did enable the governor to keep her campaign promise on declaring a ‘state of emergency’ on energy costs on Day One.
“I promised the people of New Jersey bold action to lower utility costs and, today, I’m delivering,” she said. “Trenton will no longer accept the status quo and kick the can down the road while New Jersey families pay higher bills – not on my watch.
“These executive orders will deliver relief to consumers and stop rate hikes, so New Jerseyans aren’t facing ever increasing electric bills. This will also create the conditions to massively expand New Jersey’s power generation, because more power in-state will help lower costs.
“I heard the people of New Jersey loud and clear – these rate hikes are unacceptable – and as your governor, I will not stop fighting to lower costs and make New Jersey a more affordable place to live, work and raise a family.”
PSEG, the state’s largest utility, said it is eager to work with the governor.
“We appreciate her focus on addressing energy affordability and look forward to the opportunity to work collaboratively with her administration and state leaders to address this important topic,” the company said in a statement. “PSEG believes that steps must be taken to safeguard long-term energy reliability and cost effectiveness for residents as New Jersey relies on imported electricity for more than 40% of its power, which is only expected to grow as demand increases.
“We are confident that open dialogue and information sharing will lead to workable solutions. And we are committed to our ongoing workforce development initiatives that aim to train people and expand job opportunities in the state. We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and partnering closely with the Governor and policymakers to support the state and the people of New Jersey.”
Each executive order is summarized below, with full text linked:
Executive Order No. 1
This executive order uses state authority to offset upcoming rate increases due to the regional grid operator PJM’s mismanagement and hold utilities accountable for keeping rates from continuing to climb at an unsustainable rate.
- Uses existing funds to offset electricity bill increases coming in June.
- Empowers the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to pause or modify utility actions that could further increase bills.
- Directs BPU to review utility business models to ensure alignment with delivering cost reductions to ratepayers.
Executive Order No. 2
This executive order declares a State of Emergency under the Disaster Control Act and creates and expands multiple, expedited state programs to develop massive amounts of new power generation in New Jersey, because more power means lower costs – and the state must move quickly as the federal government cuts support for energy production. It also tackles permitting challenges at the state level and interconnection delays at the utility level that hold up projects and drive-up costs.
- Initiates and accelerates programs to bring on thousands of megawatts of new solar and battery storage generation.
- Directs state agencies to identify permit reforms to more rapidly deploy new energy projects.
- Directs BPU to take action on artificial intelligence “ghost loads” by requiring electric utilities to report on energy requests from data centers.
- Establishes a Nuclear Power Task Force to position the state to lead on building new nuclear power generation.
