Murdoch Media Wrongly Pinned NJ High Electricity Costs on Clean Energy, Says Watchdog

Media companies owned by Rupert Murdoch have found a “scapegoat” in clean energy for the rising electricity prices in New Jersey, according to two reports from watchdog Media Matters.

The group flagged op-eds and coverage from Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post from August to October this year as wrongfully “blaming high electricity bills in New Jersey” on “green-energy mandates.”

“Even though the issue is most pronounced in New Jersey, it is going to be happening probably all over the country. So, any coverage that is happening there will impact the coverage of the issue everywhere,” wrote Ilana Berger, author of the two reports and a senior researcher on the Media Matters’ team on climate and energy disinformation. The nonprofit, based in Washington, describes itself as a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”

According to a Senate Democratic Joint Economic Committee report released in early November, the average American household will pay about $100 more for electricity this year, with electric bills rising in 47 states. 

New Jersey has the goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035, meaning all electricity sold in the state must come from “clean” sources under its strengthened Clean Energy Standard. This is accompanied by targets like 11 GW of offshore wind by 2040 and 2 GW of energy storage by 2030. But these are long-term build-outs, many of which are still being procured and, in the case of offshore wind, have faced challenges due to the retreat in federal support for the sector.

“The extreme hikes we are currently seeing are almost entirely attributable to data centers and their tremendous load,” Brian Lipman, director of New Jersey Rate Counsel, an independent state agency representing electricity consumers, said in an email.

PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator for Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, estimates that data centers alone will add about 30 GW in demand for the entire region by 2030, a demand equivalent to adding about 20 million homes to the grid.

Brendan Pierpont, the energy modeling chief of nonpartisan energy and climate think tank Energy Innovation, also pointed to PJM Interconnection’s slow progress in connecting more projects to the grid to match the increased demand.

As of Nov. 12, there are about 1,330 projects totaling at least 100 GW in capacity that are still waiting for interconnection with PJM. Most of the projects held up are renewables. According to a report by energy market intelligence firm Aurora Energy Research, if even about 10 percent of those renewables could be connected by 2026, they could have reduced the capacity price—the charge on electric bills that largely drove the recent price hikes—by about a quarter.

“The reason bills are going up is a simple supply and demand problem. PJM has not built enough supply while also not planning for an increase in demand from data centers,” said Alex Ambrose, an analyst with the nonpartisan think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective. “All those energy projects aren’t waiting in a queue for Governor Murphy’s approval. They’re waiting for PJM approval.”

Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post did not respond to requests for comment.

As for plant retirements, coal plants like Logan and Chambers shut in 2022, and Oyster Creek nuclear plant closed in 2018. Keeping facilities like these running would mean expensive upgrades to meet tighter pollution rules. Retiring them avoids those upgrade costs and cuts pollution that drives asthma and premature deaths.

“Coal plants were uneconomic—they could not make enough money in the markets prior to the data center load. In fact, the coal plants in New Jersey were tied to expensive out-of-market contracts and their closure led to savings for New Jersey ratepayers,” Lipman said.

According to tracking by Media Matters, Murdoch-owned outlets laid the groundwork as early as August by blaming New Jersey’s higher electricity bills on green mandates and plant closures. 

The opinion articles coincided with the gubernatorial campaign in the Garden State, where Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill triumphed against Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed by energy executive Paul H. Tice in early August faulted fossil-fuel retirements and the state’s 2035 clean-power target. Two days later, a New York Post op-ed tied hikes to “Democrats’ bungled energy policies.” 

Within three days, Fox & Friends and America’s Newsroom followed with reports linking price spikes to coal and nuclear shutdowns. The segments briefly included a counterpoint from then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sherrill, who instead put the onus on PJM Interconnection.

Then the drumbeat intensified. Fox Business’ The Big Money Show accused a “green-obsessed” outgoing Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of driving up costs. Three days later, the New York Post editorial board said “insane” clean energy policies were to blame, and Fox & Friends further amplified that line with commentary, claiming without basis that summer bills had “tripled” and that Democrats prioritize climate over affordability.

President Donald Trump jumped in on August 19, railing against wind and solar on his social media site Truth Social. Trump called them a “scam” and vowed to block them.

Meanwhile, in its endorsement of Republican Ciattarelli on Sept. 27, the New York Post editorial board claimed Democrats’ push for zero emissions sent bills soaring. A day after, The Wall Street Journal editorial board faulted clean-energy targets and restrictions against gas projects for rising prices.

“[The] actual Democratic policy in New Jersey, and nationwide, is deliberate energy scarcity—and the higher prices that go with it,” the editorial board, which is separate from its news operations, wrote.

Energy experts have sought to correct these claims.

“New Jersey has been a clean energy policy leader for decades, and if you look back to 2010, electricity prices were more or less flat for over a decade, rising slower than inflation until the recent PJM capacity market price surge,” said Pierpont in an email.

Lipman at the New Jersey Rate Counsel said that while some solar and energy-efficiency subsidies appear on people’s bills, they did not drive this summer’s sharp price increases, and short-term price bumps from offshore wind have yet to show up on bills because they haven’t been built and connected to the grid.

Allison Fisher, the climate and energy director of Media Matters, said this pattern wasn’t new. Murdoch-owned outlets repeatedly blamed clean energy for higher electricity prices to undercut the Inflation Reduction Act both before and after its passage in 2022, she said.

“Years before this moment, we already knew what the playbook was. So it definitely was not a surprise,” said Fisher.

Sherrill won the gubernatorial election and will take office on January 20, 2026.

Sherrill ran on an “affordability first” energy message, vowing to declare a state of emergency on utility costs and temporarily freeze rates on day one, while fast-tracking cheaper and cleaner in-state power generation and increasing oversight of utilities.