Energy Policy
Affordable. Reliable. Built for Growth.
New Jersey stands at a pivotal moment in its energy future.
For too long, families and businesses across our state have faced rising electricity bills, limited choices, and a system that struggles to keep pace with growing demand. The result is a constrained energy landscape that is becoming increasingly expensive and less reliable.
At the New Jersey Policy Institute, we believe it is time to take a different approach, one that prioritizes abundance, innovation, and affordability, and puts power back into the hands of New Jerseyans.
The Challenge
Every month, residents open their utility bills and feel the impact. The average household in New Jersey now pays more than $1,900 per year for electricity, well above the national average.
These rising costs are not accidental. They are the result of a system constrained at every level:
Limited new energy generation
Delays in connecting projects to the grid
Aging and insufficient infrastructure
Regulatory barriers that slow or stop development
State officials have acknowledged that increasing demand, combined with lagging supply growth and structural market issues, are driving price hikes. But for families and small businesses, the cause matters less than the outcome: higher costs and fewer options.
These are not abstract challenges. They are real burdens on working families, retirees, and employers trying to operate in an already high-cost state.
A System That Limits Opportunity
New Jersey’s energy system is shaped by policies that often favor centralized control over competition.
When government policies pick winners and losers, subsidizing certain technologies while restricting others, innovation slows and costs rise. Projects face years of delays. Investment stalls. Consumers are left with fewer choices and higher prices.
Through Energy Matters, NJPI has consistently highlighted these issues, bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, and experts to examine the real-world consequences of our current approach.
The takeaway is clear: the status quo is not working.
A Better Path Forward
New Jersey has the opportunity to build an energy system that is faster, more flexible, and more responsive to the needs of its residents.
Imagine a system where:
- Energy projects are approved in months, not years
- The lowest-cost power can move efficiently to where it is needed
- Communities can generate and share their own energy
- New technologies can be tested and scaled without unnecessary delay
This future is achievable, but only with meaningful reform.
NJPI’s Reform Agenda
To move New Jersey toward a more affordable and reliable energy future, NJPI supports a six-point reform framework:
New Jersey should establish a one-stop energy permitting office with hard deadlines. If agencies miss deadlines, the projects move forward. This alone could shave hundreds off household bills by speeding up supply.
Sunset costly appliance mandates and fuel bans that raise prices without improving service. Require transparent cost-benefit reviews. Let residents choose the technologies that work best for them.
Cap lawsuits that drag on for years. Set strict filing windows, a single state court venue, and require decisions within 180 days to keep projects moving.
Enable hospitals, businesses, and neighborhoods to create microgrids that meet safety standards with permits for peer-to-peer sales behind a shared meter or a private distribution loop, so local customers can share power to meet their needs.
Launch a public-facing energy dashboard with quarterly updates of average household bills, project approvals, and permit waiting times. Transparency builds trust and opportunities for accountability.
Create regulatory sandboxes for new technologies. Approve small-scale pilots quickly, enabling technologies to scale that work and can provide safe, reliable, and cheaper energy.
These are not just theoretical ideas. States that have adopted similar reforms are already seeing results. In New Jersey, implementing this agenda could cut household electricity bills by $400 to $600 per year within a single budget cycle and significantly more in the years to come.
