Support for wind energy drops in New Jersey: survey

Support for offshore wind development in New Jersey has dropped dramatically in recent years as projects near construction, according to polling released Monday.

Just over half of residents — around 54 percent — approve of offshore wind farm construction, according to the Monmouth University survey, a decrease from 76 percent in 2019 and 84 percent in 2011.

The state has approved three offshore wind projects, and the first, 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City, is expected to begin construction this fall. Four additional projects have been proposed to state regulators.

The opinion change has almost entirely been partisan, according to the poll, with Democrats’ opinion mostly unchanged, while a majority of Republicans no longer support the concept.

In 2019, 69 percent of Republican respondents supported offshore wind. That has now dropped to just 28 percent. Support from independents dropped from 77 percent to 52 percent, the survey found.

“There was a time when wind energy was not really a political issue. It consistently received widespread bipartisan support for more than a decade,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said. “That is no longer the case.”

Wind development opponents have pointed to potential negative impacts on Jersey Shore tourism and the local sealife as reasons to go against the projects. In the poll, 40 percent of respondents said it would likely hurt tourism and 45 percent said the projects are possibly or definitely responsible for a rise in whale beachings in the state.

At least 60 whales have died on the East Coast since preparations for the first project near Atlantic City began in December, but multiple studies from federal and state agencies have not found evidence linking the deaths with wind farms.

The wind turbine projects have been celebrated by the state government and the Biden administration as ways to encourage green energy production in well-developed areas.

Gov. Phil Murphy (D) called the federal approval of the first project this summer “a pivotal inflection point not just for Orsted, but for New Jersey’s nation-leading offshore wind industry as a whole.”

There are two operating offshore wind farms in the U.S., one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off the coast of Virginia. Both are operated by the same Danish firm, Orsted, which is constructing the Atlantic City project.