NJ Voters Blame Utility Companies, Gov. Murphy for Increasing Electricity Prices

On Aug 11, 2025

With New Jersey voters having experienced spiking electricity bills, the FDU Poll revisited questions about energy from earlier in the year to see how views in the state have changed. In the latest results from the FDU Poll, in partnership with the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey, voters say that utility companies are to blame for the increased power costs, even as their views of what should be done about them have remained largely stable. At the same time, independent voters have become more likely to say that the state should just skip investments in data centers that have been touted as an important path towards economic growth.

“The narrative about these price increases is still very much up in the air,” said Dan Cassino, a Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the Executive Director of the FDU Poll. “But the fact that we’re not seeing movement in how people view the supply side of the issue points to a real lack of leadership on these matters.”

While Democratic leaders in the state – including Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin – have spoken out against grid operator PJM, a provider of power generated in other states, blaming it for price hikes, voters tend to blame utility companies and politicians for their increased bills. When asked who is most responsible for the price hikes, 26% name utility companies; 19% blame Governor Murphy. Just 10% say that energy producers are at fault.

More than half of Republicans (51%) blame the Governor (33%) or the state legislature (18%); Democrats tend to blame utility companies (31%) and the federal government (22%) instead.

“The bottom line is that people in New Jersey don’t really know why their electric bills are going up, so they’re blaming whoever they don’t like,” said Cassino. “Republicans blame Democrats in state government; Democrats blame Trump and what they see as greedy companies.”

Revisiting questions first asked in February, the survey asked about energy production preferences in two different contexts. First, respondents were asked about what should be done to meet the demands of data centers and other projects being built in the state. Then, they were asked about energy production in the context of home technology seen as environmentally friendly, like heat pumps and electric cars.

“The state legislature can write checks to ease the shock of higher bills, but the only long-term solutions are reduced usage or increased capacity,” said Cassino. “And right now, there’s no consensus on how to get that extra capacity.”

To meet the energy demands of data centers for cryptocurrencies and AI which have been touted by the Murphy administration as being linked to economic development in the state, 34% of respondents say that the state should get more energy from nuclear power and 29% prefer more natural gas plants. One-quarter (25%) said that we just shouldn’t be building these kinds of data centers right now.

These figures are very similar to when the same question was asked in February of this year. Since February, support for nuclear and natural gas plants among voters overall have remained stable, but there has been a six-point increase in the proportion of voters who say that the state should forego these kinds of investments (from 19% in February to 25% now). The comparison with February also shows a seven-point increase among Democrats in support for more power from natural gas plants (from 22% in February to 29% now). At the same time, independents became less likely to say that they support building more natural gas plants, with support moving from natural gas plants to just not building these kinds of data centers.

“Politicians can say whatever they want, but the public continues to support an all of the above energy policy,” said Eric DeGesero, Executive Vice President of the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey. “Green power isn’t being artificially kept off the grid; it’s just too unreliable right now to be the center of any energy plan. We’ll see what the public thinks after a summer of record high electric bills.”

Overall, about the same number of New Jersey voters say that the state should focus on natural gas, green energy and nuclear power. But those views are strongly tied to partisanship: Democrats prefer green energy developments by a wide margin over the other options (54%), versus 22% for nuclear and 17% for natural gas), while Republicans favor natural gas (38%) and nuclear (36%) over green energy development (21%).

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