New Jersey Unions Create a Coalition Focused on Decreasing Energy Costs and Creating Solar Jobs
By Raeanne Raccagno, Inside Climate News.
Excerpt: Standing inside the New Jersey Statehouse last month, Claudia Mutzus wore a T-shirt from the Service Employees International Union ...gathered with other union members to mark the start of a new organized labor coalition, Climate Jobs New Jersey, with lofty ambitions: to secure energy independence through solar construction and, in the process, address the state’s electrical affordability crisis. New Jersey residents have been facing increasingly high electrical bills since they began to spike as much as 20 percent in June 2025. With large electricity demands from data centers and the state’s need to purchase off-grid power to meet energy requests, costs have surged, leaving many residents baffled with no relief. One of Climate Jobs New Jersey’s priorities is a statewide solar and battery storage program that coalition leaders say will enable the state to take back control of planning its own energy needs from PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that oversees the regional wholesale electricity market....