Governor-Elect Mikie Sherrill has vowed to declare a state of emergency on utility costs by freezing rate hikes and cutting red tape.
During her campaign for governor, Sherrill released a “Day One Declaration.”
“Utility costs are out of control in New Jersey,” she said in the declaration. “Families are spending almost their entire budget just to pay the electric bill this summer. It’s time for action, because people just can’t wait any longer.”
In August 2025, a report stated that New Jersey had the eighth-highest utility bills in the nation.
Here are the four actions Sherrill outlined in the State of Emergency:
1) To provide immediate relief, I will freeze utility costs for families as we rapidly expand new, cheaper, and cleaner power generation to lower costs.
a) I will ensure that the average New Jersey family sees no increase in their utility rates over the next year.
2) I will massively increase New Jersey’s power generation to build an energy arsenal in our state and make our energy supply cheaper and cleaner.
a) I’ll eliminate unnecessary red tape and permitting delays to open up the floodgates on new cheaper, and cleaner energy projects that increase our power supply, lower costs, and reduce emissions, because more power generation means lower bills.
3) I will require a new level of transparency and accountability from our utility companies, including PSE&G, JCP&L, Atlantic City Electric, and Rockland Electric.
a) I’ll immediately open up their books to see where rising costs to families are going, and make sure their voting records at our grid operator’s board meetings are consistent with what is best for New Jersey.
b) I’ll ensure that price gouging and collusion isn’t happening in energy and utility markets.
c) And I’ll immediately convene an emergency meeting of New Jersey’s utility companies to ensure they are connecting new, cheaper, and cleaner power generating projects to our energy supply as fast as possible, including by working with them to address bottlenecks at our grid operator, PJM.
4) I will instruct my Attorney General to take Trump and New Jersey’s grid operator, PJM, to court — in coordination with governors in our region — to force them to end their mismanagement and instead accelerate the development of cheaper and cleaner energy sources and connect new power generation to our grid immediately.
a) New energy projects can’t lower utility bills if they’re waiting years to start producing energy, but PJM refuses to connect them quickly.
b) President Trump is actively thwarting the development of new, needed power plants. I will take him on over his destructive efforts to block crucial power supplies, which will reduce our energy rates and make our air cleaner.
“In my administration, bringing down the cost of living and being accountable to the people of New Jersey will be my number one priority,” said Sherrill in the declaration.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Christmas Eve 2025, Sherrill posted, “This week, I brought together the heads of New Jersey’s energy companies to discuss my plan to get it done.”
