In our Spotlight on Business report tonight, everybody claims to have a plan to deal with soaring electric bills, but will any of them work?

Well, Democratic nominee for governor, Mikey Sherrill, today made the issue the focus of her campaign, announcing she'll declare a state of emergency over utility costs on day one in office if elected.

Pledging to freeze utility rates for the average New Jersey family over the next year, though she didn't say exactly who that includes, and to reduce regulations around bringing new solar and nuclear power online.

She also promised to hold the state's four major electric utilities accountable for the rate increases and to sue President Trump and grid operator PJM for policies she says added to the power supply shortage.

But residents need to handle their higher bills now.

Senior Correspondent Brenda Flanagan visited an event in Mercer County to connect people with Directive Relief and she joins me here in the studio.

Hey, Bren.

Hey, Brie.

You know, while the campaigns debate this issue, people's bills just keep going up.

Now, we scoped out a special event aimed at connecting utility ratepayers with state and federal programs designed to lower the cost of skyrocketing energy bills.

St. Paul's AME Zion Church in Ewing opened up its meeting hall, and Board of Public Utilities staffers checked in about 125 applicants from Mercer County.

Folks we spoke with looked and sounded shell-shocked as they talked about bills ranging from $400 to $800 a month.

Some had already gotten shut-off notices for nonpayment.

This all comes after the regional energy grid operator, PJM Interconnection, held energy auctions that caused bills in June to start spiraling upward, averaging 20 percent more per month.

And that's across all four major electric distribution companies, PSE&G, JCP&L, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric.

And while people appreciated the guidance, they felt overwhelmed.

I don't feel so good with the bills going high like this.

This is hard for people, especially for families that's trying to work.

It's bad.

Would you have to cut something out to pay this bill?

Probably would.

Food.

You skimp on your food budget?

And really, Medica, because you know you have to pay for your pills now, too.

Medicaid don't cover everything, of course.

I'm disabled right now.

I'm only collecting disability for the moment right now, and I'm just living off that.

How do you feel about the way these bills just skyrocketed?

How much more did it go up?

Tremendously.

I want to say at least a little over $100.

I'm paying extra.

Is there a Kenyatta Clayborne?

Is there a Kenyatta Clayborne?

And there she goes.

I thought that the turnout would have been smaller, but out of my surprise, I see it's been, it's about 75 people here.

So starting at 930, we had a line already, about 45 people were here.

So this is a huge turnout.

The community definitely came out to, you know, help with their savings on their utility accounts.

So this was a good thing.

What does that tell you?

That tells me that is definitely a need and we have to continue coming out to the community and assisting them where they are.

So these one stops that we have had throughout the state has definitely assisted the community.

There are people, staff from PSCNG.

PSCNG, they're helping with putting protection on the utility accounts.

So they don't get cut off?

Yeah, so they don't get cut off.

It is a summer discrimination program that the board just announced and it's over September 30th.

So we're having the utilities protect every account if they have a shut off notice or any type of hardship.

If we don't take some measures to make some changes on the legislative side, things like that, I think it will get worse.

I mean, certainly we're going to have to do things like raise minimum wage, you know, because the thing is the cost of living has gone up over the last several years.

However, salaries and hourly wages have not necessarily gone up to match that.

And so that's the reality that a lot of people are dealing with, is that they're working as hard as they can, some working more than one job, and there's still not enough to cover the bills because rent has gone up, utilities have gone up, groceries have gone up.

Now the event featured staff from several different groups offering to hook up rate payers with several existing assistance programs plus some relatively new ones the BPU recently adopted to help blunt the pain.

Now those include over $430 million in direct relief for all New Jersey electric customers.

That's $100 for every customer and $150 for low and moderate income customers.

That doesn't have to be paid back.

But utilities will also put $30 credits on bills in July and August for $60 total.

Then for six months from September through February, bills will have a $10 fee to recover that cost.

Expanded monthly benefits for low and moderate income households begin in October through Jersey's Universal Service Fund program.

They'll range from $20 to $200.

Finally, utilities have agreed not to do any shutoffs for nonpayment from July through September.

Now, the BPU noted in its last meeting there's a substantial under-enrollment in that Universal Service Fund program, meaning a bunch of eligible ratepayers still haven't signed up.

The Universal Service Fund, which is open to low and moderate income residents at 60% of state median income, and only has about a 20% enrollment rate at this point in time.

So that means 80%, roughly, of the eligible households are not enrolled.

That program is very helpful for getting energy bills down to a more reasonable place for those residents and those customers.

This should be helpful for people, but in no way solves the problem.

So I hope this helps some people get over the hump.

This is a very difficult time.

Now, ultimately, bills will continue to rise, and this is just blowing up in time for the political campaigns this fall, Brianna.

Yeah, you got that right.

I wonder, though, who the public's going to blame for this.

- Well, an FDU poll was done that shows about a quarter of Jersey voters blame the utility companies, but it also depends on your political party.

About a third of Democrats blame utilities.

More than half of Republicans, though, blame Governor Murphy.

Poll director Dan Cassino says most folks really don't know why energy bills are rising, so they're blaming whoever they don't like.

- Makes sense.

Great reporting, Bren.

Thank you for that.

- Thanks, Brie.

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