Cammie Croft, one of the many Democrats making an effort to break out in the packed 12-way field for Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s House seat, is releasing an energy affordability agenda today that she says will bring down utility costs in New Jersey and nationwide.
Croft’s policy plan consists of three main prongs: kicking off a nationwide solar energy program, offering free rooftop solar “to every home owner or business that wants it”; forcing data centers, increasingly a culprit in high energy bills, to “pay their fair share”; and tying the compensation that utility executives get to the cost of the utilities they oversee.
“Just paying our utility bills shouldn’t be so dang hard, and Democrats need to be the party that takes bold action to end the corruption that is driving them up, and actually fix the problem of skyrocketing utility bills to massively expand cheaper, cleaner energy supply,” Croft said in a statement.
Croft’s early focus on energy affordability, before many of her primary opponents have released any policy agendas of their own, echoes one of the core campaign messages of the congresswoman she’s trying to succeed. Sherrill, during her gubernatorial campaign, hammered home her proposal to freeze utility rates statewide, which helped to blunt Republican attacks over the state’s rising energy bills.
And Croft has a background of her own in energy policy, serving as a communications strategist in President Barack Obama’s Department of Energy and more recently helping to lead an affordable energy nonprofit focused on home electrification. (As she has noted repeatedly, her efforts earned her a personal attack from Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate floor, and her nonprofit faced a steep drop-off in funding after President Donald Trump took office this year.)
Of course, getting any such ambitious programs through Congress and signed into law will be a heavy lift, especially since the winner of the 11th district special election will take office while Republicans still control the House and Senate. Croft, though, said she has a way to pay for her proposals, one that many Democrats will likely cite throughout next year’s campaigns: undo some of Trump’s tax cuts for high earners.
“We have the technology to prevent our bills from skyrocketing even more, we just need a Congress that will take decisive action,” Croft said of her free solar proposal. “It can be paid for by repealing a small fraction of Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires.”
