Newark—December 1, 2025—New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA) today joined large and small New Jersey ratepayers to oppose S4876 which would send New Jersey electric rates skyrocketing by saddling ratepayers with the cost of subsidizing nuclear power plant construction. The only group to profit from this would be a select group of power companies.

“Some of the bill’s opponents are neutral about nuclear energy, some are opposed, and some are proponents of nuclear energy,” said NJCA Executive Director Dena Mottola Jaborska. “What unites various opponents of this bill are the anti-consumer provisions. The bill saddles consumers and ratepayers with year after year of rate increases. New Jersey residents and business already struggling with record-high utility bills simply cannot afford this.”
S4876 would:

• Not require an independent data-driven analysis of all possible new generation sources to compare which is most cost effective, environmentally sound, and timely.
  Saddle NJ electricity ratepayers with billions of dollars of rate increases, including an unspecified amount of cost overruns, and other expenses related to building a $20 – 30 billion nuclear power plant in NJ. The NJ Division of Rate Counsel will have the best estimate of the cost impact to consumers.
• Require ratepayers to pay higher rates to fund the construction phase of a plant for at least a decade before the plant generates any electricity.
• Allow a generation company to charge a portion of the cost of building a nuclear power plant to the NJ ratepayers even though under the 1999 deregulation law, generation companies are supposed to privately finance new generation capacity. Charging any portion of building a new nuclear power plant to NJ ratepayers goes contrary to the intention of deregulation to relieve ratepayers from the expense of building a new generation.
• Legally and permanently hooks ratepayers into having to pay higher rates to a new nuclear power plant with no opportunity to ever review or revise the policy, even if the construction of the plant goes awry. It would disallow a review and revision of this subsidy if federal credits are extended This leaves NJ ratepayers unprotected and vulnerable to rate increases that may not contribute in any way to the construction of a power plant, and could be simply padding a generation company’s profits.

“This bill serves only the narrow interests of a few companies,” said Mottola Jaborksa. “Some of the same companies supporting this bill have already made outrageous profits from existing nuclear power plants which the ratepayers paid for at least three times over after the 1999 deregulation law was adopted. Now they plan to use this major NJ ratepayer funded subsidy to build a new plant while selling large amounts of electricity that is generated in-state to out-of-state users, to maximize their profits. We urge the entire New Jersey Senate to reject this bill and look to other solutions to reduce our state’s electricity costs.”

NJCA noted there are many solutions to reducing electricity costs that the Legislature could adopt, including multiple bills pending in this Legislature. Passing S4689 would be the responsible next step, as it would commission a study to consider the most cost-effective and best options for new electricity generation.