|
John --
For Immediate Release:
May 14, 2025
Surviving the Cost: How Utility Companies Exploit Essential
Services, Drain Taxpayer Funds, Perpetuate Redlining, and Deepen
Economic Divides—And How We Can Fight Back
Op-ed by NJ State Senator, Britnee
N. Timberlake (LD-34)
A High Voltage Summary
Effective June 1, 2025, the New
Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved raising electricity
rates, increasing bills by 17.23% to 20.20%.
Electricity and gas aren't
indulgences; they're fundamental to survival. Energy is essential for
modern life—powering homes, schools, medical devices, and
transportation. Yet, publicly traded utility companies exploit this
necessity, hiking prices to funnel profits which include our taxpayer
dollars to Wall Street, while families struggle to afford basic
needs.
Hardworking
families shouldn’t have to juggle multiple jobs just to afford life’s
basic necessities, while privatized electric and gas corporate
executives enrich themselves off our taxpayer dollars.
These electric and gas companies
act as monopolies, inflating prices on essential services with no real
recourse for the payers. Taxpayer-funded subsidies cover part of the
cost, but the burden falls heavily on consumers struggling to pay the
high cost. This cycle enriches the elite while driving inflation and
deepening economic divides.
I have introduced several pieces
of legislation to put a stop to this cycle. Join me in the fight to
get the bills passed.
An Analogy
Imagine selling lemons for 25
cents per lemon. One day these lemons become essential for survival.
Therefore, you hike the price to $100 per lemon because you're the
only seller—a monopoly. Now, the government has to step in to help
struggling buyers, covering part of the cost with taxpayer money,
while consumers pay the rest. Prices keep rising, subsidies grow,
people struggle to pay, and the cycle continues. Meanwhile, you and
your circle of Wall Street friends pocket massive profits, while
everyday people fight to afford what they need.
This is exactly how privatized
electric and gas companies operate—controlling a necessary commodity,
inflating prices, and funneling wealth to investors. It's not just
unfair; it's an unethical, unsustainable, cycle of corporate greed
that is a primary contributor to inflation.
The Burden of High Energy Costs on Homeowners and
Renters
New Jersey homeowners and small
businesses are struggling under the weight of skyrocketing energy
costs. My neighbors and I often discuss the burden of these overpriced
utilities and the financial strain they create. Many, including senior
citizens have shared heartbreaking dilemmas—choosing between keeping
their homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer or covering
other essential expenses. Renters are hit just as hard. Many
landlords, overwhelmed by rising costs, have shifted the
responsibility for utility bills onto tenants. What was once included
in rent is now too expensive to do so.
Redlining Yet Again
With electric and gas costs now
ranking as one of the highest household expenses, many families will
be forced to downsize or abandon their dreams of homeownership
altogether because the cost to light, heat, run, and cool their homes
is too expensive. This increasing financial burden threatens to deepen
economic segregation, effectively creating a modern form of redlining
that restricts housing opportunities for working-class communities.
The already high cost of homeownership is further inflated by soaring
electric and gas bills, making it even more difficult for this
demographic to afford and maintain a home—ultimately depriving them of
a critical wealth-building opportunity. Modern redlining
systematically limits financial and housing opportunities for
marginalized communities, deepening racial and economic inequality and
further widening the racial wealth gap—where New Jersey already ranks
among the highest in the country. If left unaddressed, soaring
electricity and gas costs will dictate who can afford to own and who
cannot—an unintended yet brutal form of economic housing
discrimination.
The Root of the Problem: Constant Rate Increases, Greed, and
Profits
New Jersey residents pay more for
electricity than the national average. The commodity of electricity
and gas is priced too high! Rates steadily rise each year, despite
objections from the NJ State Rate Counsel, as the BPU continues to
approve hikes.
In 2024, Public Service Enterprise
Group parent company to PSE&G reported $1.77 billion in net
income, with $3.54 per share. New Jersey Resources (NJR), the parent
company of New Jersey Natural Gas, reported net financial earnings of
$289.8 million, or $2.94 per share in 2024, and $128.9 million in the
first quarter of fiscal 2025, a 77.9% increase year-over-year. The
list goes on for all other publicly traded utilities in New Jersey
including Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) – A subsidiary
of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), serving northern and central New
Jersey, Atlantic City Electric – A subsidiary of Exelon Corporation
(NASDAQ: EXC), providing service in southern New Jersey, Orange and
Rockland Utilities – A subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:
ED), serving parts of northern New Jersey.
During the pandemic, as families
struggled to keep up with their bills, I repeatedly urged the largest
of these companies to offer forgiveness relief to those who were
impacted—just as other corporations had done. After they calculated
the cost to be minimal, they still denied my request. Instead of
prioritizing customers, they continued to generate record profits
while demanding additional federal and state taxpayer-funded subsidies
to offset the costs of their overpriced electricity and gas—further
burdening struggling pandemic families.
A Broken System: Overcharging and Lack of
Transparency
Billing is intentionally
complex—PSE&G employees undergo approximately two weeks of
training just to calculate bills. If it takes workers this amount of
time to understand the process of billing, imagine the consumers who
are left powerless against overcharges.
Adding to the frustration, PSEG
admitted older meters may have misread usage for years. Yet, when customers have raised concerns over
unexplained bill spikes—sometimes even while away on vacation—their
complaints are often dismissed, explained away, or handled using
bureaucratic jargon, leaving them feeling dismissed and gaslit. The
company's only proposed solutions? An energy audit conducted by its
own employees or affiliates, further eroding public trust, or the
installation of a smart meter—a device that has reduced the need for
unionized workers, cutting staffing costs while rate hikes persist.
And who can guarantee the accuracy of smart meters?
Insufficient Programs from Electric and Gas
Companies
Electric and gas companies claim
to offer solutions to all these named problems, but their programs
fall far short:
- Energy efficiency upgrades provide
small fixes like lightbulbs and weatherizing, but many homes require
costly home renovations most can't afford.
- Rebates only apply to new
appliances, which struggling households often can’t
afford.
- Appliance insurance often excludes
key repairs, rendering it nearly useless.
- Payment plans while good don’t
always help when energy prices remain high, and companies sometimes
overcharge.
- Equal payment plans provide
predictable monthly costs but often lead to a shocking lump sum bill
at year's end. Even if payments can be spread out, the cycle strains
finances
A Call for Legislative Action
From affordable housing to the $15
minimum wage, I have spent my career in and out of government fighting
for affordability, and I will not stop now. For years, I have met with
and urged energy companies to voluntarily do the right thing before
forcing action through legislation. But time and again, they have
refused to act. Now, the time for negotiation is over—it’s time to
embed the solutions into law, and fight to get bills passed. That’s
why, with some of my colleagues, I wrote and introduced a legislative
package to put a stop to energy increases and unscrupulous
practices.
Proposed bold legislative
reforms:
Wrote:
1. S4480- Commissions a
de-privatization study to assess the viability of shifting from
privately held, Wall Street-traded corporations, to a publicly managed
energy system to promote affordability.
2. S4481- Sets energy and
utility rates back to the 2020 level.
3. S4372 and A5446- Cap rate
increases at 2% every five years.
4. S4483- Require energy companies
fully fund much needed energy assistance programs directly, so the
funds are never dry, and taxpayers are not the payees.
5. S4478- Reform appliance
insurance to guarantee coverage or issue premium refunds.
6. S4479- End lump sum bills tied
to equal payment plans and estimated bills to ensure
fairness.
7.
S4480-Protect consumers from price gouging by third-party energy
suppliers.
8. A5518-
Creates a tax on the publicly traded electric and gas utilities to
provide a credit to all customers.
Join me in the fight for fair energy policies—because the power
belongs to the people. Together, we can make change happen. Here's how
you can stand with me:
Energy companies believe they hold
all the power—both literally and figuratively. But they are wrong. The
power belongs to us. It’s time to stand together, challenge the status
quo, put Principles Over Politics, and demand a system that serves the
people—not just Wall Street investors.
- Help lower energy costs for your
family—ask your state representatives to support these initiatives and
co-sponsor the bills in this legislative package.
- If you've been
overcharged or treated unfairly, speak up! Share your story, tag on
social media, or email me to raise awareness. Learn more at SenatorTimberlake.com
Senator
Britnee N. Timberlake
34th Legislative District
|
