"The U.S. Interior Department on Friday announced it would consider selling leases to develop offshore wind in the New York Bight, located in shallow waters between New Jersey’s coastline and Long Island.

As many as eight lease areas could be auctioned off for development. The announcement began a 60-day period for comment on the proposal, which also included encouraging project labor agreements, which would require all contractors, even unionized, to pay union wages and benefits; working with the fishing industry and other existing ocean users in the bight; and to help underserved communities."

"A company hoping to build a wind power farm off the coast of southern New Jersey is partnering with Rutgers University and the state's clam industry to study the potential impacts of wind farms on the shellfish.
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC said Thursday it is funding a $500,000 study of how New Jersey's valuable clam industry might be impacted by offshore wind farms over the next 30 years. The study also will take the possible impacts of climate change into account."

"New Jersey Institute of Technology and Ørsted have signed a memorandum of understanding for a 10-year, $1.5 million partnership that will create new scholarship and career development opportunities in the field of offshore wind for NJIT’s engineering and computer science undergraduate students.

The agreement addresses science, technology, engineering and math education gaps for underrepresented students in Newark, as it will expand a range of STEM outreach events, initiatives and college-prep programming for local elementary, middle school and high school students at NJIT, offered through the university’s Center for Pre-College Programs and the NJIT-Newark Math and Science Initiative."

"There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the rapid development of offshore wind in New Jersey. As a renewable energy source, millions of homes and businesses will be powered sustainably. Furthermore, offshore wind opens more research possibilities and innovation at the state’s exceptional colleges, universities and businesses.

But as the leaders of New Jersey’s local unions, the benefit we are most excited about is the opportunity for our members to work and for our employer partners to expand their markets to be a part of this burgeoning industry."

"Ocean waters, driven by Superstorm Sandy, reached farther inland and stayed there longer due to climate-affected sea level rise during the October 2012 storm, according to a new report, which estimated $3.7 billion in damage in New Jersey was due to the higher seas.

The study, performed by Climate Central of Princeton, Stevens Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, estimated nearly 13% of the $29.5 billion damage total was climate-affected. The report settled on the $3.7 billion figure, which was in the 50th percentile of a $2.2 billion to $7 billion damage range revealed in the research."

"Campanella of the New Jersey Organizing Project said she had done extensive research on the economic impacts of the only existing commercial offshore wind farm in the U.S. – the five-turbine Block Island pilot program off Rhode Island, built and owned by Ørsted – plus the land-based wind farms operating in the Midwest as well as offshore wind farms in Europe. All of them offered an economic boost to the areas in terms of jobs during construction, operation and maintenance and induced impacts when workers’ wages went into local economies."

"As someone who makes a living fishing in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey, I’m thrilled by the Biden administration’s sweeping commitments to offshore wind development, which include advancing an inaugural project off of our coast.

Recreational anglers see firsthand that warming waters — driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels — mean summer flounder, black sea bass and other game fish are disappearing from our waters as they move farther north than ever before, disrupting fisheries management and throwing off fish migration patterns. Our reliance on fossil fuels for electricity also harms fishing in other, less noticeable, ways, such as ocean acidification and mercury pollution."

"A broad coalition of national nonprofits, labor unions, developers, and environmental justice organizations released a unity statement, praising the administration’s recent announcement to significantly expand offshore wind leasing and investment.”

“Developing and growing New Jersey’s offshore wind capabilities has been among the highest priorities of my administration,” said Murphy. “Building our offshore wind industry will allow us to protect our natural resources, while expanding the state’s economy through investments and good-paying, union jobs. I am grateful to the Biden Administration for their bold actions to bolster the offshore wind industry and move our project forward. Today’s Notice of Intent is a monumental step toward our goal of 100 percent clean energy in New Jersey by 2050.”

"The Biden administration announced a massive, coordinated effort to bolster offshore wind projects on the East Coast, saying the goal is to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030 — which is enough energy to power 10 million homes. The initiative includes a new wind energy area off the coast of New Jersey and Long Island, and it would speed up the permitting for projects off the East Coast."