Pallone Blasts Republicans, NJ’s Grid Manager for Raising Electricity Rates in the State

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr (NJ-06), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today lashed out at PJM, the organization that manages New Jersey's electric grid, for raising electricity bills in the state.

Pallone explained over 27 years ago, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 888 brought competition to electricity markets around the country. Since that time, the competition encouraged by these markets has broadly lowered wholesale energy prices and made the grid cleaner, all while ensuring reliability.

"But that's not guaranteed, and I'm worried that some of the rules of the road that govern PJM and other Regional Transmission Organizations could start to harm consumers. Last year, partially as a result of poor market design, capacity prices in the PJM region exploded from $29 to $270 per megawatt-day. These price increases aren't abstract - they are directly responsible for a roughly $25 per month increase in New Jersey power bills that my constituents will start feeling in June," said Pallone.

"For the third time this Congress, we're having an important hearing focusing on the reliability and affordability of electricity in this country. And for the third time, my Republican colleagues are going to purposefully ignore the fact they're attempting to repeal the single biggest incentive to build electricity capacity in this country - the Inflation Reduction Act," said Pallone. "Repealing billions of dollars in technology funding for all types of new energy is not the way you address the increasing need for energy."

"It also ignores the fact that the Trump Administration is freezing federal funding and trying to rescind grants for grid reliability projects that the grid operators sitting before us today have said are vital to addressing increasing energy demand. It also ignores the fact that President Trump is attempting to put tariffs on electricity imports from Canada, which could seriously drive-up energy costs for people in the Midwest and Northeast," Pallone continued.

Pallone mentioned that last week, yet another study came out - this time from Energy Innovation- showing that repealing the Inflation Reduction Act would increase American families' power bills. Pallone said that Republicans are talking about the importance of affordability, but their actions don't match their words.

"As we continue this discussion today, it's important we recognize that in this time of increased demand for electricity, families are increasingly at risk of their power bills becoming unaffordable. Grid operators - and, frankly, FERC - must remember that they have a legal obligation to ensure that their policies are just and reasonable. Anything else does a disservice to the American people who depend on you," Pallone continued.

The interconnection process - how regional grid operators like PJM approve new energy projects - has become one of the biggest bottlenecks to expanding affordable, clean electricity. It now takes up to five years for a typical wind or solar project to gain approval, compared to less than two years in 2008. In response, FERC issued Order 2023, which requires grid operators to shift from a "first-come, first-served" approach to a "first-ready, first-served" model that prioritizes viable projects and penalizes delays. While PJM has filed a plan to comply with Order 2023, FERC found the proposal lacking in detail and has yet to approve it. Until PJM fully complies and clears its interconnection backlog, consumers will continue bearing the cost of inaction - both in higher bills and in lost opportunity to add low-cost, low-carbon energy to the grid.