Pallone laments increasing partisanship of offshore wind debate

After a long period of relatively uncontroversial progress, offshore wind development in New Jersey appears to have finally run into a brick wall of partisanship. Democrats remain in favor of building wind turbines along the Jersey Shore, but most Republicans are now firmly opposed, a Monmouth University poll found this morning.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), a longtime offshore wind supporter who represents a large chunk of the Shore, says there’s a clear culprit for the shift: constant anti-wind attacks from Republican politicians and conservative media outlets.

“I’ve been fighting this Republican fossil fuel misinformation campaign for at least a year,” Pallone told the New Jersey Globe. “It was very obvious to me when it started, and when they brought in the whales as part of their misinformation campaign, that they were determined to try to influence public opinion, and that they were being backed by the fossil fuel industry.”

The opinion of New Jersey Republicans has indeed clearly been influenced; only 28% of Republican poll respondents now support offshore wind, and a majority of them said wind development hurts tourism and marine life, two frequent GOP talking points. But as Pallone pointed out, 54% of respondents overall still said they supported wind development, so the Republican message hasn’t fully broken through to the broader public.

“Tucker Carlson on Fox, my colleagues in Congress who are Republicans – they’re the ones who are saying this,” Pallone said. “I would assume it’s going to have more appeal to Republicans, because it’s Republican elected officials and the conservative media that are putting it forward.”

Pallone’s two fellow Shore congressmen, Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), are very much part of that conservative ecosystem. Both Smith and Van Drew have used their perches in Congress to criticize offshore wind and push for legislation that would delay its construction.

The issue is also a potent topic in this year’s state legislative campaigns, including in the 11th legislative district, which overlaps with Pallone’s home turf in Monmouth County. Facing attacks from Republican opponent Steve Dnistrian, 11th district State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) has worked to distance himself from ongoing wind projects, voting against a tax credit bill earlier this year and calling for an investigation into the impacts of offshore wind.

But Pallone said that many anti-wind talking points simply aren’t based in fact. Most famously, the dozens of dead whales that washed up on the East Coast earlier this year have been used as proof of the wind turbines’ harmful effects, but there’s no clear evidence that offshore wind farms – which still remain in the early construction phase – were at fault.

It’s up to Democratic officeholders and other proponents of wind energy, Pallone said, to push back against Republican messaging and lay out why offshore wind is critical to fighting climate change.

“As an elected official, I have to react to the facts, not polls and the misinformation campaign,” he said. “We, who are basing our decisions on facts, have to do a better job of explaining to the public what’s really going on.”