Poll Finds New Jersey Residents Prioritize Energy Security Over Radical Climate Policies

By Gabriella Hoffman

As New Jersey families endure summer heatwaves, there’s growing support for practical energy policies that keep the lights on and air conditioning running. 

According to new polling from Independent Women’s Voice, 85% of likely voters in the 2025 New Jersey statewide elections worry about rising energy costs expected to result from existing state climate policies–including 83% of women. 

Garden State residents were expected to see a 20% spike in their utility bills commencing on June 1st, even as some ratepayers were already paying $500 a month. This is a consequence of the Murphy administration embracing a plan to force consumers into using 100% renewable energy. But the Board of Public Utilities bailed them out and delayed implementation of the rate hike until after September 30th. So New Jersey voters are spared enormous energy cost spikes for now, but not for long.

Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ)’s Energy Master Plan, an executive order signed in 2023 mandating the state reach 100% clean energy by 2035 through solar, wind, electric vehicles, and batteries, is squarely to blame for higher utility bills. Murphy’s green transition plan is estimated to cost $1.4 trillion in lost income, or $140,000 per average New Jerseyan over  the next 25 years, while yielding no tangible environmental benefit. This isn’t sustainable for struggling families who already can’t pay their energy bills on time.

Overall, 80% of swing voters are concerned about energy reliability – including 81% of women. Upon learning the 20% electricity rate hike is attributed to Murphy’s agenda, 53% of women reported they are less supportive of New Jersey’s climate policies.

Since 2017, when Governor Murphy entered office, five coal plants and the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which produced 20% of the state’s electricity capacity, have permanently closed down. Unsurprisingly, the Energy Master Plan has invited more energy insecurity into the Garden State – which is now a net-energy importer state. Unsurprisingly, New Jersey will never reach its clean energy goals, as it’s mostly powered by natural gas (49%) and nuclear (42%) for electricity generation. Renewables, like solar energy, barely account for 8% of New Jersey’s energy mix. States like New Jersey can’t run on part-time energy. 

PJM Interconnection, a grid operator servicing New Jersey and 12 other states, said that prematurely retiring power plants and replacing them with renewables like solar and wind could undermine grid stability this summer. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) equally warned in its 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment that solar and battery additions “introduce more complexity and energy limitations into the resource mix.”

Due to rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, air conditioning, manufacturing, and transportation costs, energy is a top issue for New Jersey voters going into the fall. 64% of swing voters and 59% of women saying energy was among their top three issues, respectively.

After learning about the implications of Murphy’s 2035 net-zero target, swing voters decreased their support for the governor’s climate policies by 9% and women decreased their support by 11%, respectively.

New Jersey voters are equally worried that Governor Murphy’s climate policies are more extreme than California’s. Our polling found 72% of swing voters and 71% of women are concerned with the extreme direction their state is heading in.

New Jersey’s energy crisis is self-inflicted. After implementing this costly Energy Master Plan and closing down 6 reliable power stations, Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) now wants his constituents to conserve energy by setting their ACs to 76-78 degrees Fahrenheit, delaying appliance usage until 8pm, and making a plan for power outages. 

The late President Jimmy Carter famously called on Americans to set their homes “to 65 degrees in the daytime and lower at night” to reduce heating costs, which helped make him a one-term president. This strategy of sacrificing for less reliable energy, to be climate-friendly, isn’t a winning strategy for today’s New Jersey Democrats, either. 

New Jerseyans, like their fellow Americans, want abundant, reliable, and secure energy. There are two legislative remedies Trenton lawmakers can consider to achieve this: exploring the feasibility of small modular reactors (SMRs) and reforming the Energy Master Plan to deemphasize unreliable solar and wind energy. Since New Jersey already has two nuclear power plants, SMRs – smaller reactors that are portable and easier to construct – will supplement existing projects, produce more reliable energy, and help the state reduce its reliance on imported electricity. 

It’s imperative whoever succeeds Governor Murphy after November puts their constituents ahead of costly climate policies that reduce quality of life and do little to conserve the environment.

Gabriella Hoffman is director of Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation. Follow her on X at @Gabby_Hoffman

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.