Murphy Raises Offshore Wind Goal to 7500MW by 2035- Win for Wind

Today, Vice President Al Gore, the Governor, and First Lady held a press conference at the Liberty Science Center.  Governor Murphy Signed Executive Order to Increase Offshore Wind Goal to 7,500MW Megawatts by 2035.

“It is really important that Governor Murphy has raised our target for offshore wind to 7500MW by 2035. That amount of wind generation will help power close to 3.2 million home. More importantly offshore wind will help reduce GHG’s and stop fossil fuel power plants and pipelines in New Jersey.

Offshore wind will move us forward when it comes to clean energy and green jobs. It is one of the most reliable and cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases and get renewable energy to scale. This is one of the biggest offshore wind proposals in the nation and an opening for more progress on wind energy.” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This is a wind, win, win; A win for the environment, a win for the battle against climate change, and win for our economy. Offshore wind will help create green jobs and move forward on reducing our GHG’s. We need to do more and quicker however because we are in a climate crisis. We need to move away from dirty energy and put a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects.”

Ocean Wind LLC, who own Orsted, have secured the rights to bring offshore wind power at the former Oyster Creek nuclear station. In June, Orsted won approval from the BPU to build a 1,100-megawatt, $1.6 billion offshore wind facility close to 15 miles away from the coast of Atlantic city. Atlantic Shores also won a solicitation to build an offshore wind farm in New Jersey.

“Today is a great day for wind and a huge step in the right direction. Given the climate urgency we need to get to 12500MW of wind and 100% renewable by 2035. Originally, New Jersey’s goal was 3500MW of offshore wind, and now we are at 7500MW, so we are seeing great progress. Offshore wind will help us create thousands of jobs in a variety of fields including construction and operation. Building just 1100MW of offshore wind will help reduce our C02 emissions by close to 3 million metric tons and reductions in NOx and SOx,” said Tittel. 

There are still over a dozen fossil fuel projects that are looking to move forward. Projects like the Meadowlands Power Plant, the NESE pipeline, the PennEast Pipleine, the SRL Pipeline, the LNG port in Gibbstown, and the SJ Gas pipeline are just a handful of projects down the pipe in New Jersey.

“The press conference event today at the Liberty Science Center is 2 miles away from NJ Transit’s proposed power plant and very close to the Meadowlands Power Plant site. Building that power plant would undermine offshore wind for New Jersey. We need to move forward on wind energy, but we can’t get there if there are over a dozen fossil fuel projects. That is why we need Governor Murphy to put a moratorium on fossil fuel projects so that we can regulate and reduce C02 and move forward with renewable energy. We can move forward with offshore wind and NJ Transit’s grid can be powered by it,” said Tittel.

A recent E2 report found that building one average offshore wind farm that produces 352MW, can create 4,313 jobs, $278.9 million in wages, and $702 million to a state’s economy.

“Offshore wind will help us create over 4,000 jobs in a variety of fields including construction and operation. More importantly, building our wind infrastructure will help prevent unnecessary dirty fossil fuel plants and pipelines from being built. New Jersey has enough potential of offshore wind to meet 1/2 of our electrical needs.  We thank Governor Murphy for his leadership is making wind a reality for New Jersey. We need to move quickly because climate change is getting worse,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.