State Senator Criticizes Gov. Murphy for Soaring Electric Bills

State Sen. Michael Testa blamed Gov. Phil Murphy’s energy policies for higher electric bills this year that he claims have left New Jersey residents and business owners feeling “meager and poor.”

Testa, a Republican who represents the First Legislative District, said the Democratic Murphy administration’s statewide energy master plan has been more like an “energy disaster plan.”

Speaking during a legislative forum Thursday sponsored by the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, Testa maintained that Murphy’s heavy reliance on offshore wind projects that ultimately failed to materialize has driven up energy bills throughout the state.

“I’m sure each and every one of you, whether it’s in your home or in your businesses, has had the unfortunate process of opening your electric bills in the last couple of months and having what we call sticker shock. People are calling our offices in record numbers and asking, ‘What’s up with the delivery charges? How come they’ve gone up so much?’” Testa told the Chamber of Commerce audience at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City.

Looking back to when he first ran for the state Senate in 2019, Testa asserted that it was clear, even then, that Murphy’s energy policies were destined to fail.

“In 2019, when we ran for office, we were accused of engaging in political hyperbole by calling the energy master plan the energy disaster plan.  Right now, I’m left standing up here, telling people, I told you so. We knew this was going to happen. We didn’t know how bad it was going to be. We didn’t know exactly when it was going to hit. But we knew it was going to hit,” he said.

The looming energy “crisis” was avoidable several years ago, but Murphy instead pushed ahead with his support for offshore wind energy plants in New Jersey that were never built, Testa said.

“The Murphy administration went all in on offshore wind, with nothing, absolutely nothing, to replace it,” Testa said, noting that other power plants that used coal, oil and nuclear energy were shut down in New Jersey.

One of those proposed offshore wind farms had called for nearly 100 towering wind turbines located 15 miles off the coast from Atlantic City to Stone Harbor. The developer eventually killed plans for the project after encountering lawsuits and fierce opposition from Cape May County elected officials, who believed the wind farm would cause economic and environmental harm to coastal communities.

    A rendering depicts what the gigantic wind farm turbines would have looked like off the Cape May County coast if the project had been built. (Image courtesy of Orsted).
  

Murphy had wanted New Jersey to become a national leader in clean energy by having a series of wind energy farms built along the coast. None of those new plants have been built, in part because of opposition from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Testa accused Murphy’s administration of being “intellectually disingenuous” for touting New Jersey as a clean energy state while at the same time it has been buying electric power from the 13-state PJM power conglomerate that includes coal-burning plants.

“We’re purchasing energy produced by coal plants. Now, to me, I think that’s very intellectually disingenuous to say that we’re going to go 100 percent clean energy while we’re purchasing energy from pretty much the dirtiest source still available.  Yet we shut down a nuclear plant and natural gas plants. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, and ultimately hurts New Jerseyans,” Testa said.

Testa said he wanted to refrain from political attacks, but strongly criticized Murphy for what he claimed were the governor’s failed policies – and for the soaring electric bills this year.

“This is where I will say one political thing. You’ve heard Governor Murphy constantly say over the past eight years that he wants to make New Jersey stronger and fairer. I’ve got to tell you, when New Jerseyans are opening those electric bills, they don’t feel stronger and fair. They feel meager and poor. We have to have a serious discussion about what we are going to do,” he said.

    In his remarks, state Sen. Michael Testa blames the governor for higher electric bills in New Jersey this year.
  

The Chamber of Commerce’s legislative forum also included remarks by Republican Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen, the other members of the First Legislative District delegation. The First Legislative District includes all of Cape May County and parts of Atlantic and Cumberland counties.

In his remarks to the Chamber, McClellan touted the benefits of the newly enacted Next New Jersey Manufacturing Program. The program is a $500 million tax credit initiative to boost investment and create jobs in the state's manufacturing sector.

McClellan was a co-sponsor of the manufacturing program legislation in the Assembly, while Testa was a primary sponsor in the Senate.

One critical aspect of the manufacturing program is how it will encourage students to pursue jobs in the technical fields. As a result, more students will decide to make their careers in New Jersey instead of leaving to look for job opportunities elsewhere, McClellan said.

“We have the opportunity to help young people get better jobs and benefits,” McClellan said in an interview after his remarks to the Chamber members.

Simonsen focused part of his remarks to the Chamber on New Jersey’s $150 million State Aid program that gives the counties funding for projects such as improvements to roads, bridges or other transportation-related infrastructure under county jurisdiction.

Cape May County was awarded $3.1 million from the State Aid program in the latest round of funding, the lowest amount among New Jersey’s 21 counties.

“That’s ridiculous,” Simonsen said in an interview of Cape May County receiving the smallest amount of funding.

    The Cape May County Chamber of Commerce audience listens to the speakers at the Flanders Hotel.
  

The $150 million in funding is awarded to counties based on their population and road mileage. Simonsen said the current funding formula is unfair because it doesn’t take into account the dramatic jump in the seasonal population and road traffic Cape May County experiences in the shore communities during the summer vacation season.

“To be based on those two things is not fair,” he said of the population and road mileage criteria.

Simonsen wants the funding formula to be revised to reflect Cape May County’s seasonal increases in population and road mileage.

His office released a copy of a Sept. 9 letter, written by Cape May County Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Stafford Jones, calling on the state to change the funding formula to reflect the county’s seasonal jump in population and road mileage.

“However, as we discussed the current funding formula does not take into account the weighted additional costs to mitigate accelerated wear on roadways/bridges and the necessary infrastructure that is needed to service seasonal spikes in population, the importance of roads functioning as evacuation routes as opposed to less traveled rural roads, or the unique challenges of constructing and maintaining roadways that are located in environmentally sensitive floodplains,” Stafford Jones said in the letter to a state fiscal analyst.

For a full list of each county’s State Aid funding, visit the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s website.