Bucco: NJ Families & Businesses Need Affordable Energy Plan

Governor’s Energy Master Plan Will Increase Cost to Customers by Phasing Out Clean Natural Gas

Senator Anthony M. Bucco said New Jersey needs a more balanced and practical approach to meet its energy needs than was proposed in Governor Murphy’s new Energy Master Plan.

Under the Governor’s proposal, the state would begin to phase out the use of natural gas, which is the most affordable energy resource, and pursue higher-cost energy policies. A poll by the Operating Engineers released last week showed two-thirds of residents opposed the plan.

“While Governor Murphy’s energy plan may earn him pats on the back from other liberal millionaires, it’s nothing more than a tax that will drive up gas and electric bills of hard-working New Jerseyans who are already at the limit of what they can afford,” added Bucco. “It’s another example of the governor not understanding the extreme cost of implementing a far-left progressive agenda. Instead of offering relief that people are seeking, he’s promising higher energy bills that will drive the outmigration of more families and businesses from New Jersey.”

More than 75% of homes in New Jersey are heated by affordable natural gas, which also is the primary source of electricity generation by the state’s utility companies. Federal data also shows New Jersey already has one of the lowest per capita carbon emission rates of any state in America.

Last fall, the state’s commercial real estate association which would be targeted for costly retrofits and conversions said the plan would be “devastating to our economy and would drive people and jobs from the Garden State.”