NJ Voters Back Data Center Moratorium, Poll Finds

Sixty-five percent of New Jersey voters want a freeze on data center construction until the state builds enough generation capacity to keep up. The Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll dropped those numbers this week, and they’re not comfortable reading for anyone who’s been telling Trenton that AI infrastructure is a straightforward economic win.

Only 32% of voters oppose a moratorium. That’s it. And don’t mistake this for a partisan thing, because Republicans, Democrats, and independents are all saying the same thing to pollsters. Slow down. Build the power first.

“Rightly or wrongly, voters blame data centers for their increased electricity bills,” said Dan Cassino, executive director of the FDU Poll. “The argument that doing so would hurt the state economy doesn’t help when people are worried about their own finances.”

The data center industry has spent real money lobbying against any moratorium in Trenton, citing job creation and economic growth. Voters aren’t buying what they’re selling, at least not right now.

What’s surprising is how open people are to building more generation capacity across the board. Natural gas came out on top at 76% support, with only 21% opposed. The poll described gas plants as ones that “can come online faster than other types of power,” and that framing probably moved some numbers. Renewable energy, which the poll defined as wind and solar, pulled 67% support. Nuclear landed at 56% in favor, 42% opposed. That’s the tightest split of the three, but it’s still majority support.

The partisan breakdown is where things get complicated for anyone trying to pass energy infrastructure legislation. Ninety percent of Democrats back renewable plants. Only 38% of Republicans do. Republicans lean hard toward gas and nuclear. That’s the kind of gap that makes bipartisan energy bills genuinely difficult to write, let alone pass.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill already moved on nuclear. She signed legislation last week adjusting waste requirements for nuclear plants, a change her office framed as ending what was effectively a 40-year moratorium on nuclear energy in New Jersey. That’s directionally consistent with where poll respondents said they want to go.

Greg Lalevee, business manager for IUOE Local 825, released a statement saying “New Jersey voters understand we need to be quickly producing more energy in our state to make electricity more affordable.” His union sponsored the polling questions. Cassino said the International Union of Operating Engineers didn’t control the wording and that the questions met the FDU Poll’s objectivity standards.

Here’s the real issue the poll surfaces. The data center moratorium question gets all the attention, but the deeper problem is that even the most popular short-term fixes, including bill freezes, don’t actually solve what’s happening to household electricity costs.

“Freezing electric bills helps, but it doesn’t solve the long-term problem or bring costs back down to where they used to be,” Cassino said.

That’s what makes this politically messy. Voters want action now. They don’t care much about the economic arguments developers are making. But the action they want, stopping construction until power supply catches up, won’t fix the bills they’ve already got. Trenton’s going to have to answer for that gap eventually.