Energy has become a major issue in this year’s election for New Jersey governor as prices rise. It will likely also dominate other races in next year’s midterm elections.
Ciattarelli criticized the outgoing governor’s plan for constructing offshore wind farms, which some advocates have argued is inefficient and harmful to the environment.
“Anybody who’s from New Jersey would know that the Jersey Shore is sacrosanct, here at the state, nobody wants wind farms off our Jersey Shore,” Ciattarelli said during Sunday night’s debate.
Instead of relying on wind energy to alleviate surging costs, he proposed that a solution is a mix of nuclear and solar energy.
“What I’ve said all along is I’ll reopen and repurpose the plants,” he continued. “We’ll expand our nuclear footprint in South Jersey, we will accelerate solar on rooftops, our warehouses, and we’re pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. That carbon tax initiative has been a failure.”
Meanwhile, Sherrill argued the Trump administration’s funding cuts for renewable energy have led to increased energy costs in New Jersey. She also blamed utility companies, claiming that “they keep dumping the costs onto the ratepayer here in New Jersey.”
“Let’s face it, some of our utility companies have made over a billion dollars in profits, and yet our ratepayers are constantly suffering,” Sherrill said.
She also identified data centers, which require large amounts of electricity, as part of the reason why costs are getting higher. New Jersey has about 80 operational data centers, and more are expected to be built now that the artificial intelligence boom is underway.
Both candidates recently released their first campaign ads in which they made their case about how to solve the Garden State’s higher energy prices.
President Donald Trump loomed large over the debate, with Sherrill trying to tie Ciattarelli to the administration and the Republican defending Trump’s actions during the first year of his second term. Ciattarelli is a former state lawmaker endorsed by Trump, and Sherrill is a representative for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
Earlier this year, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities warned that customers would see higher electricity bills by between 17% and 20%, starting June 1. The board’s president attributed the price hike to the annual capacity auction by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator that services Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.
A plurality of New Jersey voters, 26%, pinned the blame for higher electricity bills on utility companies, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll conducted in July. The rest of the responses were a mix of blame on Murphy, the federal government, and the Democrat-controlled state legislature.
A separate poll conducted by Quinnipiac University earlier this month showed more likely New Jersey voters backing Sherrill over Ciattarelli, 42% to 40%, when asked which candidate would do a better job of handling electricity costs in the state. Sherrill’s slight lead on this issue was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 points.
