New Jersey residents felt shocking electricity bill hikes as Booker’s vows whither

New Jersey families are fuming as their electricity bills skyrocket—despite Senator Cory Booker’s 2022 vow that federal legislation he championed would lower energy costs for Garden State residents.

In August 2022, Booker stood behind the Senate’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, proclaiming, “For hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans, it’s going to lower your overall energy costs.”

But three years later, residents are opening utility bills with wide eyes and clenched jaws—many wondering what happened to that promise.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), data centers may consume up to 12 percent of total national electricity consumption by 2028, nearly tripling from 2023 levels.

Clean energy projects and battery storage are urgently needed to meet demand, lower electricity prices, and continue to reduce carbon emissions, but Booker failed to initiate investments adequate for the job.

Instead of relief, customers across the state reported jarring increases:

• Jersey Central Power & Light: +20.2%
• Atlantic City Electric: +17.23%
• PSE&G: +17.24%
• Rockland Electric: +18.18%

Wholesale electricity prices in the state surged 20% in June 2025, with another 5% jump expected by next summer. New Jersey electricity rates now sit 15% above the national average, making them the 12th most expensive in the country.

“Booker promised savings. We got sticker shock instead,” said a retired Bergen County resident on a fixed income who saw her summer electric bill balloon over $400.

Despite his 2022 rhetoric, Senator Booker has offered no clear explanation for the reversal in outcomes—or why federal action hasn’t translated into relief.

Energy analysts point fingers at multiple factors: PJM Interconnection’s delays in onboarding new clean energy projects, the closure of nuclear and coal facilities, and the surging demand from AI data centers. But critics argue that these trends were foreseeable—and Booker, who voted for and praised legislation supposedly designed to reduce energy burdens, should have been prepared to address them.

“The narrative about these price increases is still very much up in the air,” said Dr. Dan Cassino, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson University who conducted polling on the issue before the June primary election. “But the fact that we’re not seeing movement in how people view the supply side of the issue points to a real lack of leadership on these matters.”

While state leaders like Governor Phil Murphy and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin have scrambled to place blame on PJM Interconnection—a federally regulated grid operator—residents aren’t buying the excuses.

A recent Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll shows:

• 26% blame utility companies
• 19% blame Governor Murphy
• 14% blame state legislators
• Only 10% blame energy producers

Meanwhile, more than half of Republicans (51%) pin the blame squarely on Murphy and Trenton Democrats. Democrats, in turn, fault utility companies and—somehow—Trump-era policies.

“People don’t know who to believe anymore,” said Marcus Fields, a small business owner in Edison. “Booker made a promise and disappeared when the bills came due.”

---

To calm the outrage, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has offered limited relief:

• $100 in utility credits for residential customers spread across September and October
• $175 in additional credits for low-income households
• Shutoff protections extended through the summer

But with inflation still pinching wallets and the next wave of energy price hikes looming, these stopgap measures feel like too little, too late.

Though PJM is not under direct Senate control, Congress—including Senator Booker—holds significant oversight authority via FERC, the federal commission that regulates the grid operator. The Senate can hold hearings, pass legislation, and investigate grid performance.

Critics want to know why Booker hasn’t taken meaningful steps.

“The Senate isn’t powerless, but over more than a dozen years, Cory Booker just hasn’t used his power to make energy more affordable for New Jersey families,” said Lisa McCormick, a clean energy advocate who years ago argued that the Biden-era response to the climate crisis was inadequate and now warns that the Trump Republicans are accelerating environmental disaster.

“Temporary Band-Aids are never going to be the solution for a long-term crisis,” said McCormick, who called for a climate emergency declaration, plus approval and implementation of a Green New Deal,” said McCormick. “Only a national mobilization on the scale of FDR’s preparation for World War II can halt climate change, the greatest threat to humanity in our history, but such an investment can create 20 million jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030.”

“President Biden and Cory Booker passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which may be the largest climate bill in U.S. history, but compromise after compromise rendered that legislation inadequate in comparison to the scope of the problem,” said McCormick.

“When it comes to energy policies, 63% of those polled said they would support a candidate who takes an all-of-the-above approach to energy, including more fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis,” said McCormick. “America needs new leadership with the courage to correct the majority when they are wrong about the facts, because we can attain cheap energy without murdering our grandchildren.”

“At a time when New Jersey’s energy infrastructure is straining under demand and renewable promises remain unfulfilled, voters are growing tired of being used as political pawns in a blame game,” said McCormick. “Whether it’s due to bad policy, failed oversight, or political posturing, one thing is certain: New Jerseyans are paying the price. Literally.”

“And Senator Booker? He hasn’t offered a single new plan—or even a tweet—about why electricity costs are rising under legislation he once promised would make them fall,” said McCormick. “Cory Booker said energy costs would go down. They didn’t. Now, New Jersey residents are left to foot the bill—and wait for answers that still haven’t come—as temperatures rise under an administration that pretends climate science is not real.”

“My long-term plan is to be a United States senator for the time that the residents of this state allow me to do that. I think you really weaken your ability to contribute if you begin to think about other offices and not where you are,” said Booker following his 2013 special election victory, but he ran for president the same year he was up for re-election after one full term.

Now, he is halfway into a second race for the White House, he’s sitting on a $20 million campaign fund, and things are much worse for ordinary Americans.