Did environmental opposition to nuclear and natural gas inadvertently contribute to NJ’s high electricity prices?
TLDR: New Jersey blocked most new gas and nuclear projects while betting heavily on offshore wind, which later collapsed. With aging plants retiring and no replacements built, the state now imports more power, faces PJM capacity spikes, and pays higher electricity prices — exposing the cost of a decade of energy opposition.
New Jersey is facing an energy crisis. From sticker shock at the gas pump to electricity rates rising 20-25% over the last five years, an ever-growing percentage of the weekly paycheck is spent on keeping the lights on and getting around. While many are blaming AI data centers for rising home electricity prices, the real cause is more nuanced. Yes, datacenter demand is increasing, but New Jersey also produces less in-state electricity than it did ten years ago, making the state more reliant upon out-of-state generation (seen in increased delivery charges in utility bills) and competition in the regional PJM grid.
For more than a decade, New Jersey’s environmental movement has successfully opposed nearly every major natural‑gas and nuclear project proposed in the state. Their victories reshaped the state’s energy mix, but did they also inadvertently contribute to a widening in‑state generation gap that now collides with rising demand, stalled offshore‑wind development, and record‑high PJM capacity prices?
Murphy’s bet
When Governor Phil Murphy took office in 2018, his administration made a strategic decision: instead of expanding natural gas or nuclear, New Jersey would pursue offshore wind at unprecedented scale. The state set a target of 7.5 GW by 2035, one of the most ambitious in the nation. Offshore wind became the centerpiece of the Energy Master Plan, with the administration arguing it would deliver clean power, create jobs, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Environmental groups strongly supported the strategy. Offshore wind was seen as the clean‑energy backbone that would replace gas and avoid nuclear expansion. But the plan depended on global supply chains, stable financing, and predictable construction costs. Those assumptions that collapsed between 2021 and 2024. By late 2023, the state’s flagship projects – Ocean Wind 1 and 2, developed by Ørsted – were canceled. Inflation, supply‑chain disruptions, rising interest rates, and turbine‑manufacturing challenges made the projects financially unworkable. Other projects, including Atlantic Shores, were delayed or renegotiated. The collapse left New Jersey with zero offshore‑wind megawatts built, no near‑term replacement for retiring fossil‑fuel plants, and no firm capacity to meet rising demand.
The state’s energy strategy, built on the assumption that offshore wind would arrive on schedule, now has a massive energy generation hole.
- New Jersey consumes roughly 73–75 terawatt‑hours (TWh) of electricity annually
- New Jersey produces only 55–58 TWh in‑state
- That leaves a shortfall of 15–20 TWh per year, depending on weather and demand
- In capacity terms, PJM’s 2025/2026 auction showed a 6,623 MW shortfall — the first in PJM’s history
This gap is filled by imports from Pennsylvania, New York, and other PJM states. When PJM capacity prices spiked in the 2025/2026 auction, New Jersey ratepayers were hit with some of the highest capacity charges in the region.
A decade of opposition
Beginning in the mid‑2010s, environmental and environmental‑justice groups, including Clean Water Action, Sierra Club NJ, Environment NJ, Food & Water Watch, and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, mounted coordinated campaigns against new natural‑gas infrastructure. Their argument was consistent: new gas plants and pipelines would lock in fossil‑fuel dependence, worsen pollution in overburdened communities, and undermine the state’s climate goals.
Over the next ten years, they helped stop or delay nearly every major gas proposal:
- PennEast Pipeline – the largest new gas supply source in decades designed to deliver 1 billion cubic feet per day of Marcellus Shale natural gas to gas utilities in Central Jersey, including PSE&G and New Jersey Natural Gas, to reduce winter price spikes
Canceled after years of litigation and organized opposition - NESE Pipeline (Williams/Transco) – expansion of an existing 23-mile offshore pipeline through Raritan Bay to increase gas supply to National Grid in New York City and Long Island and provide reliability during winter peaks
Delayed for seven years due to sustained environmental and EJ pressure - South Jersey Gas – Pinelands Pipeline – a 22-mile pipeline designed to convert the BL England power plant from coal/oil to natural gas and provide a secondary gas feed to Cape May County
Canceled and BL England plant closed in 2019 - Southern Reliability Link (SRL) – a 30-mile pipeline through Monmouth, Ocean, and Burlington counties designed to provide redundant supply to the Jersey Shore
Canceled after years of opposition and regulatory delays
- Williams/Transco – Garden State Expansion – expanded compressor station and pipeline capacity to increase gas delivery to New Jersey Natural Gas and South Jersey Gas and support regional reliability and peak-day supply
Partially abandoned - North Bergen Liberty Generating Station (1,200 MW) – a high-efficiency gas plant designed to produce and export power to New York via an underwater cable
stalled and ultimately abandoned. - Keasbey Energy Center expansion (700+ MW) – replacing two older natural-gas turbines with newer units that would have tripled power while reducing emissions per MWh
met with intense opposition and regulatory delays - PVSC backup gas plant in Newark – backup power for the state’s largest wastewater treatment plant that lost power during 2012 Hurricane Sandy and released millions of gallons of untreated sewage into Newark Bay, the Passaic River, and the Hackensack River.
opposed by EJ groups, forcing redesigns and delays.
Collectively, these decisions removed thousands of megawatts of potential in‑state capacity and prevented new pipeline redundancy into Central and North Jersey. At the same time, older gas plants retired, and no new firm capacity replaced them.
NRDC: the outlier
While nearly every New Jersey environmental and EJ group opposes the new bill in Trenton (A4882 “The Natural Gas Reliability Act”) intended to streamline upgrades to existing natural‑gas plants. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) supports it. NRDC’s stance reflects its national strategy and the Obama administration’s stance. The 2015 Clean Power Plan treated natural gas as a “bridge fuel” – a transitional step toward a cleaner grid. This framing influenced the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which supported gas‑related measures if they replaced coal or older, dirtier units.
Nuclear too
While natural gas drew the most visible protests, nuclear energy faced its own opposition. Groups including Clean Water Action, Environment NJ, and Empower NJ oppose new nuclear development, advanced‑reactor proposals, and subsidies for existing reactors. When the state approved Zero Emission Credits (ZECs) in 2019 to keep the Salem and Hope Creek plants online, environmental groups fought the measure, arguing it was an unnecessary bailout. The subsidies passed anyway, but the opposition signaled that nuclear expansion would face steep political resistance. As a result, New Jersey pursued no new nuclear development for more than a decade, even as other states explored small modular reactors (SMRs) to replace retiring fossil‑fuel plants.
There’s a new nuclear bill in Trenton – A4881 “Power NJ Act” – to create a program overseen by the NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and Economic Development Authorit (EDA) to bring advanced nuclear energy to the state. Sierra Club NJ, Environment NJ, Clean Water Action, and Food & Water Watch oppose it.
A turning point?
New Jersey now faces a pivotal moment. The state’s decade‑long strategy – block gas, avoid nuclear, build offshore wind – has collided with economic reality and rising demand. The result is a system increasingly dependent on imports, vulnerable to PJM price spikes, and lacking firm in‑state capacity.
The Legislature’s new bills signal a shift toward pragmatism: modernizing existing gas plants for near‑term reliability and exploring advanced nuclear for long‑term stability.
Environmental groups argue that doubling down on fossil fuels or nuclear risks undermining climate goals. But rising electricity prices impact households unequally, with poorer households – the same households that environmental justice groups advocate for – feeling the rising prices more acutely. Supporters counter that reliability and affordability require firm power sources and that renewables alone cannot fill the gap. The debate is no longer theoretical. It is unfolding in real time, on ratepayer bills and in legislative hearings, as New Jersey confronts the consequences of a decade of energy decisions.
Sources:
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2024). *Electric Power Monthly: Table 5.6.A—Average retail price of electricity to ultimate customers by end-use sector, by state*. U.S. Department of Energy. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/
Obama, B. (2014). State of the Union Address. The White House. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/28/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2024). New Jersey: State energy profile. https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NJ
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2023). State CO₂ emissions: New Jersey. https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state/
PJM Interconnection. (2024). 2025/2026 capacity auction results. https://www.pjm.com/markets-and-operations/rpm
Ørsted. (2023). Ocean Wind 1 & 2 cancellation announcement. https://orsted.com/en/media/newsroom
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. (2020). New Jersey Energy Master Plan. https://nj.gov/emp/
PennEast Pipeline Company. (2021). PennEast project cancellation. https://penneastpipeline.com/news/
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. (2020). NESE water quality permit denial. https://dec.ny.gov/
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. (2020). NESE permit decisions. https://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/
Natural Resources Defense Council. (2015). The role of natural gas in a clean energy future. https://www.nrdc.org/
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2024). Electric Power Monthly: Table 5.6.A—Average retail price of electricity to ultimate customers by end-use sector, by state. U.S. Department of Energy. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/
