Moms get it done

Good morning!

A large data center can devour as much electricity as a small city, and New Jersey has dozens of data centers operating around the state — as many as 80 to 106, according to various trackers. They’re the single largest driver of spiking electric costs and contribute to power outages, so Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed three bills yesterday meant to lower bills for everyday ratepayers and reduce data centers’ impact.

She picked an unusual place to sign the measures into law — the childhood home in Salem County of Assemblyman Dave Bailey, a bill sponsor whose mother Eileen still lives there and watched as a parade of politicians spoke on her lawn.

“My 90-year-old mother asks me to come over when she opens her electricity bill each month to see how good of a job I am doing in Trenton,” Bailey said of his mom’s role in the lawmaking.

We’ll start with that story today …

Electricity costs: Via Nikita Biryukov, “Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a trio of bills meant to lower electricity prices and blunt the impact data centers have on them Tuesday. The bills would create a separate rate-setting process specific to data centers, eliminate a bump to return on equity New Jersey’s utilities get for joining the state’s regional grid, and require utilities get new approvals from the state before building some types of transmission infrastructure whose costs are ultimately borne by ratepayers.”

Air safety: Via me, “New Jersey officials have given three public colleges $3.5 million in state funding to train aviation professionals, amid a national shortage of certified air traffic controllers that has led to mounting safety concerns and flight delays. The state Office of the Secretary of Higher Education announced Tuesday that Kean University and Atlantic Cape Community College got $1.5 million each, and Warren County Community College received $500,000 under a grant program intended to grow New Jersey’s pipeline of aerospace professionals.”

Immigration: Via Tim Henderson at Stateline, “A new appeals court ruling is another blow to the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy that threatens millions of immigrants with unlimited incarceration without bond if they ever crossed a border illegally … The 2025 policy has faced widespread rebellion among federal judges, even Trump appointees, with many of them freeing immigration prisoners and calling the policy unconstitutional. Other appeals courts have also struck it down in a conflict likely to be heard in October by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

States vs. feds: Via Jonathan Shorman and Kevin Hardy of Stateline, “A quarter millennia after its founding, the United States faces a stark choice that will define its future. In the years ahead, the country can continue to follow the path blazed by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to bring states under the authority of a more powerful federal government led by him. Or it can move in a different direction, one where states become a heavier counterweight to an aggressive White House and rebalance the relationship between the states and the federal government … ‘The states know what the potential dangers are, and they’re getting better prepared,’ former N.J. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said.”

Senate scramble: Via Jacob Fischler, “A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to retake the Senate majority. In the wake of Politico’s explosive Monday report that an ex-girlfriend of Platner’s alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2021, the political newcomer’s supporters in Congress and Democratic circles in Washington, D.C., rescinded their endorsements and sought a new candidate in the race that is seen as crucial to Senate control.”