Sherrill says she’ll freeze utility bills in first year as governor

As electricity bills continue to soar across the state, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) promised Wednesday that she will use executive authority to immediately freeze utility rates if elected governor. 

The aggressive proposals come as Democratic state officials seek to address the 20% increase in electric rates that arrived this June and another, smaller bump expected next June. The rising prices are a potent political issue heading into November, with the governorship and Assembly at stake: Democrats largely blame the region’s energy grid operator, while Republicans blame Democratic clean-energy efforts.

Sherrill, the Democratic nominee to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, said she would declare a state of emergency on the first day of her governorship and freeze utility rates, an action she says no governor has ever taken. She paired that declaration with a promise to build an “energy arsenal” of cheap, clean power sources in the state that will lower prices in the long run.

“When I take office, the average New Jersey family won’t see an increase in utility rates for an entire year,” the congresswoman said.

Sherrill announced her plans at a press conference outside the Kenilworth home of Herb and Mary Michitsch, who have been married for 57 years and lived in the house for 53 years. Herb said they used to pay less than $100 per month in utility bills, but the prices are now “creeping up” to $400 per month.

Under the state of emergency, the Democrat said she’d immediately break ground on solar and battery storage projects, as well as expand capacity at existing nuclear plants and modernize existing natural gas plants. Sherrill said she’ll “open up the books” of the state’s utility companies, including PSE&G and JCP&L.

She also said she’ll direct her attorney general to sue PJM Interconnection, the energy grid operator for New Jersey and 12 other states. Democrats blame PJM for recent utility woes, saying the organization mismanaged the implementation of new energy sources, particularly clean-energy sources. Sherrill said she hasn’t ruled out any options for reining in PJM’s mishandling of the grid, including potentially leaving the PJM system.

“We have more projects in the queue in New Jersey than we have power in the grid,” Sherrill said. “Many of those projects are clean power projects, so if they are going to continue to mismanage our grid like this, then yes, I’ll explore all options to drive in capacity and drive down costs.”

Other governors in the region have targeted PJM as well. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sued PJM last year; in a settlement, PJM agreed to cap how much it could increase electricity prices for 2026.

Sherrill’s proposal includes the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant in Salem County. Discussions and steps toward building the plant, which would be constructed on Artificial Island along the Delaware Bay, go back to at least 2010.

“We already have a pre-approved site there, the fourth site, so we have got to build that out,” Sherrill said. “I’ll sit down with neighboring states so that we can act together to drive down the cost of building new nuclear plants.”

Sherrill said Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor, won’t take on PJM or electric companies if it threatens his relationship with President Donald Trump. She said the Trump-backed budget bill is set to increase utility costs in the state by $220 per year.

“[Ciattarelli’s] called PJM, the largest grid operator in the United States, the grid operator that a bipartisan group of governors across the country blames for much of this mismanagement, ‘some regional nonprofit’ and said that holding them accountable is ‘a bunch of BS,’” she said.

In a dueling press release, Ciattarelli said Sherrill’s party is to blame for the increase in electric rates. Republicans have long attacked Murphy’s efforts to implement clean energy in the state, arguing that projects like offshore wind mean the state can’t keep up with increasing energy demands.

If elected governor, Ciattarelli said he’ll focus on diversifying the state’s energy sources, including natural gas and nuclear production.

“Mikie Sherrill has been a lockstep supporter of Phil Murphy’s failed energy policies in New Jersey and the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies in Washington,” Ciattarelli said in a release. “Policies obsessed with disastrous offshore wind farms, electric vehicle mandates where government tells you what kind of car you can drive, and effectively banning natural gas, forcing New Jersey to import electricity from other states and pay through the nose for it.”

Ciattarelli said Sherrill is inextricably tied to Democrats’ handling of energy in the state.

“Now, just 75 days from the election – with angry residents suffocating under the rising costs of electricity in New Jersey due to one-party Democrat control in Trenton – Mikie is trying to gaslight people into believing she had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Murphy and legislative Democrats passed a flurry of bills this summer when the extent of the price increases became clear. The governor, for example, signed a pair of bills last week that target PJM, directing a state regulatory board to investigate the grid operator’s pricing model. 

“We are committed to creating a system that is fairer and more transparent for customers and the states that represent them — a necessary change from the opaque practices that have, for too long, defined PJM,” the governor said about the bills.