By NJ State House News Service reporters Victoria Gladstone of The College of New Jersey and Paige Britt, Emma Ferschweiler, Madison Miller and Abby Thomas, all of Rowan University.
This is the second story in a multi-part series examining key issues in the 2025 New Jersey governor’s race. With the primary election coming up on June 10, this series aims to provide voters with clear, comparative information on where each candidate stands. For a full overview of the field, visit our 2025 Primary Voters Guide and our first report on property taxes.
As the 2025 gubernatorial primary nears, climate and energy policy is emerging as a top issue in New Jersey, where the state has committed to 100% clean energy by 2035 — a goal increasingly complicated by rising utility bills, resistance to offshore wind, soaring demand from AI data centers, and disruption at the federal government.
Governor Phil Murphy’s green energy agenda has become a flashpoint, with Democrats largely supporting the state’s clean-energy transition, while several Republicans advocate sticking with fossil fuels and scaling back environmental mandates.
Democrats
Ras Baraka, Newark’s mayor, calls for stronger mandates on AI data centers and expanded solar and battery storage.
“We need to force them to find alternative or supplemental energy sources like solar and batteries… so it won’t drive prices up or strain the grid,” Baraka said.
Steven Fulop, Jersey City’s mayor, wants to overhaul the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which regulates energy.
“The BPU has become a political dumping ground for former politicians,” Fulop said. “A lot of the issues that we have right now are byproducts of not having the best and brightest.”
Mikie Sherrill, a U.S. Representative, emphasizes solar power to lower costs and increase resilience.
“I have a plan on community solar and investments there, as well as utility-grade solar and how we can put those on state-owned land, on remediated landfills, parking lots, the top of big-box stores across the state, so we can drive down utility costs and create cleaner energy,” Sherrill said.
Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association, says investing in renewables will ease costs and meet growing demand.
“Green technology is the future… diversification will keep our energy bills down and provide for our rising energy needs,” Spiller said.
Steve Sweeney, the former state Senate president, backs offshore wind and methane-based “reusable gas” as affordable, near-term energy sources.
“The quickest and most affordable energy we can bring in here right now is reusable gas, and we need to do that now,” Sweeney said. “We need pipelines. We need to build power plants.”
Sweeney also proposes reducing New Jersey’s dependence on the PJM Interconnection, the multi-state power grid whose auction system is driving a projected 20% increase in utility rates starting June 1.
“We need to be independent, really, from the PJM grid,” he said.
Josh Gottheimer, a U.S. Representative, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Republicans
Jon Bramnick, a state senator, wants to revise Murphy’s Clean Energy Act without offshore wind and criticized the $1 billion tax break offered to wind developer Orsted, which ultimately canceled its projects.
“They still couldn’t do it,” Bramnick said. He proposes using “all sorts of energy sources” to reduce out-of-state reliance and eventually lower costs.
Mario Kranjac, a former Englewood Cliffs mayor, favors fossil fuels and nuclear, calling wind and solar unrealistic.
“They sound nice, but they don’t work — not to the point where we need them to,” Kranjac said.
Bill Spadea, a former radio host, wants to replace the BPU with a board of citizen ratepayers, eliminate wind projects, and build small nuclear reactors and cogeneration steam plants.
“We’ve had enough with wind energy,” Spadea said. “It’s inefficient, it’s expensive, and it destroys our coastline.”
Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman, and Justin Barbera, a contractor, did not respond to requests for comment.
