Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to use the legislature’s lame-duck session to codify his clean-energy goals into law. His top climate adviser, Eric Miller, told Politico, “We feel this is the right moment in history for this legislation.” With only five months left in office, it may be a dire attempt to create a legacy.
The main goal is to source 100% of the state’s electricity from clean energy by 2035, as set in Executive Order 315 in 2023. He also aims for all new car sales by 2035 to be zero-emission and to convert 400,000 homes from natural gas to electric heating and cooling by 2030.
Several factors make this an odd time to push these goals into law.
First, Murphy is leaving office after eight years with a Democratic-controlled legislature. Lawmakers have often urged him to involve them in setting energy policy, but he has shown little interest until now.
Second, New Jersey faces an energy pricing crisis driven by a supply imbalance that has pushed costs to record highs. Capacity auctions in 2024 and 2025 set back-to-back price records despite a cap, and experts warn the 2026 auction could bring even steeper increases.
With demand surging from electrification policies and a boom in AI-driven data centers, and no significant plan to expand in-state generation, New Jersey, already a net energy importer, is on shaky ground.
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The hubris involved in doing all of this at the end of an eight-year term is shocking.
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Less than a decade ago, New Jersey met its own electricity needs.
With apologies to those members of Murphy’s constituency that see the climate change issue as one that trumps all others, it is critical to realize that the only way to build deep and enduring support for an energy transition that will be long and painful is through a balanced approach that considers both environmental need and economic impact.
The state closed one nuclear plant and several fossil fuel-burning generation facilities with the bet that the energy lost could be replaced with power from a massive push into offshore wind. The state took what were real and tangible sources of power and replaced them in our imagined energy plan with power from sources that were not yet real. The result is a bet lost and a need to each year import more energy from outside the state as our demand continues to grow.
Now we are told that in January, with days left in his term, Murphy will seek to give his aggressive goals for clean energy sources the power of law, making it harder for his successor to deal with the energy crisis Murphy leaves behind.
Murphy does not seem to see the irony in the fact that just two months ago he was forced to tap the Clean Energy Fund, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and the Solar Alternative Compliance account to provide relief to ratepayers trapped in a spiral of rising energy prices that are rooted in the state’s energy policies.
The Clean Energy Fund has been used to support the general fund when historic levels of spending outstripped state revenues. It has also been used for much-needed operating funds for NJ Transit, a use far from its intended purpose. It appears that the state can compromise on its clean energy agenda when its own spending is constrained. The ratepayer does not have that luxury.
Remember as well that in January, again with days left in his term, Murphy is also expected to adopt the newly revised set of land use rules for the coastal zone known as Resilient Environments and Landscapes, or REAL.
The hubris involved in doing all of this at the end of an eight-year term is shocking, even more so since by January the voters will have already elected a new leader in November.
The legislature should not allow the lame-duck session to be so misused.
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From the Bible: The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. — Proverbs 21:5
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