New Jersey

Local residents can feel dismayed at energy developers. A significant majority of residents in three communities – in New Jersey, Louisiana, and the Navajo Nation – felt developers had not fulfilled promises on previous projects, and that community engagement had been insufficient. The concept of a Community Benefits Plan was positively received – but not universally – in the three communities. Support grew for a CBP following the survey, but skepticism remained. Small business owners and environmental groups were consensus favorites within communities of entities that should participate in a CBP process. There is no consensus on the most important benefits for any community, but actions to improve environmental quality and reduce pollution ranked higher, along with affordable housing requirements and funding for mental health and substance abuse services. Addressing measures of environmental quality was perceived as more important than community-related clean energy expansion.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on voters’ relative trust in the two parties to handle climate change and the environment, as well as new polling and consumer data about electric vehicles.

 

HEADLINES

Declining support for offshore wind in New Jersey shows the dangers of misinformation about renewable energy. Just over half of New Jersey residents (54%) favor placing electricity-generating wind farms off the state’s coast while 40% oppose this action. In 2019, wind energy support stood at a much higher 76%, with just 15% opposed. Prior to that, support for offshore wind farms was even higher, ranging between 80% and 84% in polls taken from 2008 to 2011.

Green Dash Northeast is a free tool that displays state-level data related to emissions and energy in the Northeast. This tool may be useful for staff at environmental NGOs, state and local governments, and community-based organizations seeking to better understand the status of climate and energy initiatives throughout the region. Green Dash Northeast aggregates publicly available data to present useful emissions and energy-related metrics. Metrics are displayed consistently for all Northeastern states, which allows for meaningful comparisons between states and additive regional values. Categories of data include: greenhouse gas emissions, electric energy, energy efficiency, non-electric fuels, battery storage, clean energy jobs, energy burdens and rates.