The latest Monmouth University poll shows a drastic decrease in support although a majority still supports it
The EEW American Offshore Structures manufacturing plant in Paulsboro is the first monopile fabrication facility in the U.S., where the monopile windmills for Ocean Wind 1 are being welded, sandblasted, and painted. – RICH HUNDLEY III/NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
By Matthew Fazelpoor, NJBIZ
Although a majority of New Jerseyans support the development of offshore wind, that endorsement has fallen dramatically, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
The survey found that just over half of residents (54%) are in favor of developing wind farms off the state’s coast versus 40% who oppose them.
That’s a stark plunge in support from a 2019 Monmouth poll on this topic when favorability stood at 76% with just 15% opposed. From 2008 to 2011, that support was more than 80%.
“There was a time when wind energy was not really a political issue,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It consistently received widespread bipartisan support for more than a decade. That is no longer the case.”
Of course, the issue has become a hot-button and polarizing one with a number of community activists, local stakeholders, and a group of Republican lawmakers vehemently opposing offshore wind development – buoyed by a rash of whale and dolphin deaths as well as expressed concerns about tourism, sightlines, noise and more – that has led to calls for a pause in action until more is studied.
As NJBIZ has reported, despite those calls for a moratorium, things have been moving full speed ahead on the state’s three approved offshore wind farm projects as well as with the solicitation of future projects.
Gov. Phil Murphy and other prominent backers have pointed to offshore wind’s potential clean energy and economic benefits, in addition to federal agencies and experts finding no evidence linking the early phases of industry work (which currently includes ocean floor mapping using sonar technology) to adverse outcomes, as reasons not to pause.
The issue, though, is bubbling at the local levels up and down the Jersey Shore and will be at the center of this fall’s legislative elections.
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