As the head of the N.J. Economic Development Authority — and someone who has spent decades understanding the wants and needs of companies — Evan Weiss said he has noticed a distinct pivot in those conversations.
To energy.
Not just what electricity costs today, but whether New Jersey can generate enough of it — consistently and affordably — to support the next wave of investment. Weiss stops just short of calling it the single dominant concern for every business, but he makes clear how dramatically the landscape has shifted.
“If it’s not number one, it’s always in the conversation,” he said.
And the conversations are far different than at the beginning of the Murphy administration eight years ago.
“We didn’t talk about it very much,” he said. “It was a very specific industry that had energy requirements. Now, it’s well over half that have some requirement.”
Everyone knows a big reason for that change is the rise of compute-heavy industries — from artificial intelligence to data-driven manufacturing, logistics and life sciences — sectors that New Jersey wants to compete for aggressively.
But that use comes in different forms and with different forms.
“Everyone now is going to be using (AI) in some way or another,” Weiss said.
His hope – dream? – is that such use will lead to better models.
“Maybe AI will keep getting more efficient, so we need less.”
The current reality is different. Gov. Mikie Sherrill has made that clear since inauguration day, when she signed executive orders around energy costs.
Those moments made it clear that energy will core to her administration.
That puts the EDA squarely in the middle of debates that cut across energy policy, climate goals and competitiveness. How can New Jersey expand generation, control costs and maintain reliability without choking off growth?
Weiss makes clear he’s not ready to lay out the administration’s full strategy yet — but he signals that one is coming.
“That’d be a good thing to talk about in the near future, because I think we’ll have a better sense about where the energy piece is going, and particularly at EDA,” he said. “But it is top of mind.”
