Right-wing media are pushing hard to disparage New Jersey’s renewable energy investments, which they misleadingly blame for high electricity rates. 

In 2025, New Jersey’s wholesale electric bills rose dramatically, with average residential customers seeing bills climb by roughly 17-20% per month. Next year, ratepayers can likely expect another 1.5 - 5% increase on top of that. 

Several factors are contributing to the rate hikes in New Jersey. They include increased demand for electricity to power new data centers and New Jersey grid operator PJM Interconnection’s reported failure to quickly connect renewable projects to the grid. But news outlets owned by the Murdoch family — Fox Business and the editorial boards of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post —  are pinning the blame for electricity costs on renewable energy, insisting that eliminating subsidies for renewable energy and building more fossil fuel infrastructure in the state are among the answers to New Jersey’s cost-of-living crisis. 

The Trump administration has taken this approach as well, scrapping billions in renewable energy projects. Increasingly, the consequences consumers are already experiencing elsewhere reveal that a crusade against renewable energy is unlikely to benefit New Jersey or the country as a whole.

Electricity bills have spiked in New Jersey, a result of changes in the state’s energy market

• The rate hike has impacted customers of the regional transmission operator PJM Interconnection, which serves 13 states including New Jersey. Several factors — such as long waiting times for new projects to connect to the grid, growing energy demand, and fossil fuel projects becoming uneconomical and closing — led to tightened supply and caused a dramatic price spike. [Regional Plan Association, 8/5/25; Inside Climate News, 8/18/25; Natural Resources Defense Council, 7/25/25]
   
• State policymakers are frustrated with long timelines for renewable energy projects that could help drive down costs. In late September, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said, “We need to move more quickly on energy-producing projects, and we’ve got to hold down costs. If PJM cannot do that, then Pennsylvania will look to go it alone.” Shapiro, along with 10 other governors from PJM’s member states, “are requesting more say in how PJM allocates its resources and brings generation online,” according to Grist. And according to The Gothamist, although “New Jersey currently has 33 large-scale, shovel-ready solar projects awaiting approval by PJM … many could take a year or 18 months longer to get approval.”  [Grist, 10/15/25; The Gothamist, 8/19/25]

Murdoch media outlets, hosts, and guests misleadingly blame climate-friendly policies for high energy prices 

• Fox Business host Stuart Varney said he blames “green policies” for “skyrocketing electricity prices” in New Jersey. [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 10/16/25]
   
• Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis claimed that “idiotic proposals” like “investing in renewables” have “taken these rates up,” mentioning New Jersey. DeAngelis continued, “People see what happens when you have President Trump in versus Joe Biden and your gas prices come down and how that feels. We are suffering from these higher electricity prices in blue states because at the helm the governors like Phil Murphy, like Kathy Hochul, they won't do what they need to do to bring those prices down.” [Fox Business, The Big Money Show, 10/3/25]
   
• Varney said that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli “has a plan to bring energy prices down” while guest Steve Forbes chided current New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s energy policies. Forbes said that popularity ratings are down for Murphy and New Jersey Democrats because “they won't build a pipeline from Pennsylvania, which has plenty of natural gas, which is low pollution, clean — they won't bring it in. And then windfarms — offshore, kill the whales, bring them onshore, you kill the birds. Not a good combination. And they call it pure energy — no, it's impure when you start with how they get those minerals out of the earth in Africa and elsewhere to make those windfarms.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 9/29/25]
   
• The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board complained about New Jersey that “as always, Democrats blame business” for rate hikes “rather than change their bad policies,” which include “requiring that 100% of state power come from ‘clean energy’ by 2035.’” [The Wall Street Journal, 9/28/25]
   
• The New York Post Editorial Board said Democratic New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Sherrill’s plan to “tame costs” for residents includes  “locking in pricey ‘clean energy’” and falsely claimed that “it’s precisely Democrats’ drive for zero emissions that has sent electric bills soaring.” [The New York Post, 9/27/25; Regional Plan Association, 8/5/25]
   

The anti-renewable energy agenda right-wing media are promoting in New Jersey is playing out across the country, and many are questioning its logic

• After the Trump administration announced it was canceling $8 billion in renewable energy and clean tech projects, some Republicans expressed concerns about projects in their states. Politico spoke to several lawmakers in red states who said they did not know what would become of major energy projects under the cuts, or had contacted the administration for “restoration of those things.” [Politico, 10/14/25]
   
• The governor of Utah recently spoke out against the Trump administration’s efforts to  impede a massive solar project in Nevada. “This is how we lose the AI/energy arms race with China,” Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox wrote. He encouraged an “all-of-the-above approach to energy,” but emphasized that “incredible leaps in battery technology completely change the value proposition of solar in the right places.” According to Utility Dive, “The project’s National Environmental Policy Act status is listed as canceled on the Bureau of Land Management’s website.” The Interior Department denied cancelling the project, and said that applicants that were involved could eventually resubmit “individual proposals.“ [Canary Media, 10/13/25; Utility Dive, 10/14/25; Twitter/X, 10/10/25]
   
• The New York Times Editorial Board explained that Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will also likely drive up electricity prices. The Times pointed to an analysis from the consulting firm National Economic Research Associates, which found that the bill’s “ repeal of the tax credits alone may push electricity prices almost 10 percent higher than they would be otherwise by 2029.” [The New York Times, 10/9/25]
   
• A recent Politico analysis found that “states that embrace renewable energy are far more likely to save money for electricity consumers than those relying on fossil fuels or nuclear power.” Looking at data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Politico found that most states that get a higher than average percentage of their electricity from renewable sources “had below-average electricity rates in June” and that “states that have been the quickest to add wind and solar generation to the grid have had lower power prices.” [Politico, 10/7/25]