Poll shows popularity slumping for US offshore windfarms

Four years ago, 77% of residents living in areas that border the ocean or a bay supported offshore wind turbines. Only 33% of coastal area respondents favour such construction in this latest poll released by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. 

“When the concept of windfarms moved from abstract policy considerations to preparing for actual construction, many residents said, ‘Not in my backyard, or at least not off my beach,’” said John Froonjian, director of the Hughes Center.

“That’s especially true along the coast, where wind farms have been the focus of protests and legislative election campaigns,” he said.

Waning support

The poll revealed that more state residents support the windfarms than oppose them, with 50% in favour of New Jersey plans to build wind turbines at sea to generate electricity and 33% opposed. Sixteen percent were unsure.

These results reflect a drop of 30 percentage points from the findings of a September 2019 Stockton Poll that asked an identical question. In 2019, 80% of adult New Jersey residents supported offshore windfarms.

The main reasons for opposition to offshore turbines are potential harm to sea life and obstructed ocean views.

In the new poll of nearly 600 New Jersey adults, 72% still expressed concern about climate change, with 51% saying it is very important for the state to combat it and 21% saying it is somewhat important. Only 1 in 4 said it was not very important (9%) or not important at all (17%) for the state to make those efforts.

A majority of 52% said renewable energy sources such as wind will improve the climate, with 9% saying it would worsen conditions and 28% saying it would have no effect.

Pluralities — not a majority but the biggest group of respondents — also saw benefits in other areas of concern. This included improvements to local job opportunities (45%), lower home energy costs (39%) and improved reliability of electric power (35%). However, 48% opposed giving tax breaks to companies building the wind turbines, with 39% in support and 12% unsure.

Asked to rate the impact of windfarms, 71% said turbines would affect ocean views a great deal (34%) or a little (37%), with 16% saying they would have no effect. Also, 68% said wind turbines would affect marine life a great deal (44%) or a little (24%). 

In July, the U.S. Interior Department approved the construction and operation of 98 wind turbines and up to three offshore substations in the Ocean Wind 1 project off the New Jersey coast.

“On every question, residents of shore communities were more negative about wind energy than people living elsewhere in New Jersey,” said Alyssa Maurice, Hughes Center research associate.

An even stronger divide was found along partisan lines, with Democrats strongly supporting wind energy and seeing potential benefits and Republicans roundly opposing turbines as negative forces.