Policy Interventions to Address Rising Electricity Costs in New Jersey
Synapse prepared the report Policy Interventions to Address Rising Electricity Costs in New Jersey for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Evergreen Collaborative to examine strategies that can improve energy affordability for households and businesses. As electricity prices and essential living costs continue to rise, low- and middle-income consumers face especially high energy burdens, spending a disproportionate share of their income on electricity. The report quantifies the impacts of four policy interventions that can significantly lower costs: requiring data centers to bring their own clean energy generation, accelerating clean energy deployment to alleviate capacity constraints, right-sizing utility profits to better reflect risk, and promoting beneficial electrification of vehicles and buildings. Together, these measures could save a typical New Jersey household $467 per year and a commercial customer $1,236 per year by 2030, reducing statewide energy costs by more than $14 billion.