"Especially as we recover from COVID-19 and this recession, an extinction event for small- and minority-owned businesses, the earliest stages of the offshore wind industry must provide an economic adrenaline shot straight to the communities most in need: the small businesses that with every additional dollar used to hire more and reinvest locally.

This isn’t just about small businesses, though. We must ensure people of color are included in key leadership positions: on the development side, in public agencies, in community and advocacy groups. Communities of color are often the ones that bear the brunt of disruption wrought by large infrastructure projects, but offshore wind presents an opportunity to prioritize investments that advance community-centered goals and directly deliver jobs and training benefits to people who are too often excluded from the development process."

"The Millwright Union played an essential role in the construction of the nation’s first offshore wind farm, Block Island Wind Farm. Our union members have witnessed first-hand the benefits that this burgeoning industry can bring to a community, and now we have the chance to recreate these same opportunities for our union members in New Jersey and along the East Coast.

The benefits of a US offshore wind industry will extend to an entire US-based supply chain, which means investment and jobs for workers in the construction, manufacturing, port operations, maritime and engineering industries.

Recreational anglers are seeing first hand that warming waters mean that species are moving farther north than ever before – disrupting fisheries management and throwing off fish migration patterns.

Recreational anglers should know that the state of New Jersey plans to generate 3,500 megawatts of clean energy though wind power over the next 12 years (this is enough energy to power approximately 1.5 million homes). This is the largest offshore wind energy commitment of any state to date. Anglers for Offshore Wind Power’s mission is to make sure our concerns for safety and those to safeguard the fish and habitat are addressed as ocean wind farms develop. Pollution from fossil fuels is harming our fishing in multiple ways, and offshore wind is a clean energy source that can benefit fishing. But it must be done right.

When developed responsibly, offshore-wind power can coexist with — and even improve — fishing along the East Coast. Offshore-wind power can benefit recreational anglers if developed with our input in mind. In addition to reducing the carbon emissions that are driving climate change, the turbine structures will provide hundreds of fishable artificial reefs and current breaks that will attract numerous fish species.

A majority of New Jersey voters support construction of offshore wind farms and see it as beneficial to the environment and state's economy, according to a new poll from Nexus Polling, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

Three-quarters of poll respondents supported offshore wind development and two-thirds thought it would benefit the economy, according to pollsters.