Next week one of our opponents, Assemblyman John DiMaio, will cross the Delaware to join Pennsylvania Republicans and “policy experts” at a so-called “Energy Affordability and Reliability” hearing. When the cameras are off, behind closed doors, it will turn into a huddle of politicians and fossil fuel executives. They will plot how to keep the expensive, dirty, and deteriorating system alive a little longer.
They’ll use words like “affordability” and “reliability,” but what they really mean is dependency. They want us dependent on out-of-state corporations, on volatile fuel prices, and on an outdated grid that fails everyone.
Meanwhile, right here in New Jersey, more than 35 organizations, including NJPP, CRAN, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, GreenFaith, and the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee, have launched Power Play NJ. This coalition is calling for clean energy, lower bills, and fairness for ratepayers. They’re not meeting with oil executives in marble halls, and neither are we. Like this coalition, we meet with residents, small businesses, and community leaders who know what rising utility bills mean for real people. It means we need to revolutionize, not regress, in how we produce energy. Let’s be clear: this fight isn’t about left or right. It’s about who controls power. We think that should be you.
Every time you pay your electric bill, a chunk of it leaves New Jersey to pay fossil-fuel generators in other states through PJM, our regional grid operator. Every time Big Tech builds another massive data center that drains megawatts of electricity, you pay for it in higher rates. According to PJM’s own monitor, data centers were responsible for 63 percent of last year’s electricity price increase, costing ratepayers $9.3 billion.
That’s not affordability. That’s exploitation. That is the system our opponents will continue.
The truth is, if we produce more of it ourselves, we can have both lower costs and cleaner energy. Thus, we believe the path forward is local generation: small-scale wind turbines, community solar over public buildings and parking lots, microgrids that are more resilient because they won’t blackout, and eventually modular nuclear plants that are small, safe, technologically superior. All of these technologies will bring revenue to lower our taxes, create meaningful jobs, and move us towards the now-inevitable and desirable green energy future.
AI is part of this story, too. When used responsibly, it can help manage the grid more efficiently, integrate renewables faster, and save families money. But when AI is left in the hands of unregulated Big Tech giants, it becomes an energy parasite, feeding off public infrastructure and leaving ratepayers with the bill. We can’t let that happen in New Jersey.
Real energy independence doesn’t come from clinging to yesterday’s fuels. It comes from empowering communities to generate their own affordable, reliable power. It also means investing in training the next generation of electricians, linemen, and technicians to build the future right here in the Garden State. It means putting the word “public” back in “public utility.”
The hearing in Harrisburg will be a photo-op for the past. Power Play NJ is a movement for the future. As voters, as neighbors, as New Jerseyans, we have a choice. Do we want to keep renting our power from corporate landlords or start owning it ourselves?
This election let’s take our power back — literally. Vote for Guy Citron & Tyler Powell for Assembly. We’re fighting for New Jersey. We’re fighting for you.
Early voting begins Saturday, October 25th
Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th
Find your local polling place and other voting information here: https://nj.gov/state/elections/vote.shtml
Published 2025-10-25 at https://www.tapinto.net/towns/bernardsville-and-bedminster/categories/op-eds/articles/it-s-time-to-take-our-power-back-3