A power bill crisis is gripping parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and is set to worsen, threatening to financially crush households as long-range forecasts point to a brutally cold winter. What began in Baltimore, Maryland - as first covered in our reporting one year ago- has now spread to New Jersey, where residents are furious over skyrocketing electricity costs.
The common denominator in both states? A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and cheap fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind. This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.
Fox News is beginning to latch onto the power bill crisis theme, starting with coverage of New Jersey residents who are absolutely furious over exploding power bills. This new development could severely damage the state's Democratic leaders in the upcoming elections.
This all started when New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities approved a 17 to 20% rate hike for power bills in June. Many residents were shocked when they opened their bills at the end of last month.
"$200 more, I know my electrical bill," one Jersey woman told Fox News reporter CB Cotton, adding, "I was shocked. So to say the least, I'm very disappointed. This is killing us, and every time you turn around it's something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them."
Perhaps Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's decision to shutter the state's nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error that is only now coming home to roost. He also prioritized offshore wind farms and other green energy projects, which have left the grid more fragile than ever.
Fox News pointed out, "Murphy himself is term-limited from running for office again, but the Democratic nominee in the race, Mikie Sherill, is facing many of the same criticisms."
Let's head three hours south down the I-95 corridor to Baltimore, Maryland, where far-left activist lawmakers, including Governor Westley Watende Omari Moore, who is being positioned for the party's 2028 presidential run, have sparked a very similar power bill crisis.
Cut from the same climate-crisis-cult cloth, these Democratic leaders across the Mid-Atlantic states have failed voters with disastrous green policies.
In Maryland, the power bill crisis seems much more severe than in New Jersey!
In the political arena, the Democratic Party is panicking to keep Gov. Moore afloat as his ratings implode over the affordability crisis sparked by power bill madness in the era of AI data centers.
"Governing is hard. Just ask Governor Wes Moore — plummeting 14 points in a year, scraping a dismal 50% approval in deep-blue Maryland," Change Annapolis, a bipartisan group of taxpayers, wrote in a post on X.
Change Annapolis continued, "Marylanders are tired of his presidential vanity tour, crushing tax hikes, and an energy crisis of his own making," adding, "He's polling worse than O'Malley and Glendening at this point in their terms."
The power bill crisis is still in its early stages. Goldman analyst Hongcen Wei wrote an alarming note to clients on Wednesday, warning that a majority of U.S. power grids "have already reached dangerously low spare capacity levels that are at or below the critical reliability threshold. This raises blackout threats and results in power price spikes during high-demand usage hours."
In other words, the power crisis is here, and high energy costs could very well doom Democrats in Mid-Atlantic states. Each month, voters are reminded of the impact of failed green energy policies when they open their soaring utility bills.