This article was originally published by The Philadelphia Inquirer on November 3, 2023.
By: Brooke Helmick, Melissa Miles
The transition away from fossil fuels is an urgent necessity, but we must ensure that renewable energy development doesn’t leave anyone behind.
On Tuesday, the offshore wind developer Orsted announced that it had decided to scrap both of its New Jersey projects, citing rising interest rates and supply-chain problems. The projects, combined, would have powered over 1.6 million homes and were part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to address climate change.
But this setback is by no means the end of renewable energy in the Garden State. In order to ensure a full and just transition to clean energy technologies, New Jersey must continue to prioritize the economic stability and well-being of communities that have been historically sidelined from the benefits of energy development.
Job training is among the most important outcomes of any potential renewable energy project.
Our organization, the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, works with communities that have been disproportionately exposed to and negatively impacted by hazardous pollution and industrial practices. This includes Newark, Camden, Edison, and Bayonne, which are close to waste incinerators, power plants, Superfund sites, and other highly toxic sources of pollution.
In June, we joined the first cohort of community-facing organizations to receive workforce development grants as part of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s offshore wind initiative. We worked to help inform the process of introducing offshore wind in a manner that centered, or at least included, communities that are currently hosting power plants and refineries. These communities have been historically cut out of important conversations and initiatives like this one.
Within these meetings, we as an environmental justice organization worked to reframe the conversation around the immediate needs and risks of overburdened communities. These projects were one avenue for ensuring that New Jersey residents traditionally impacted by toxicity and pollution were no longer just the victims of bad policy, but active participants and the protagonists in the story of what comes next.
In the pursuit of a just transition away from fossil fuels, we must continue to ensure that the transition to clean energy does not leave people behind. As made visible by the New Jersey Environmental Justice Mapping, Assessment, and Protection Tool, areas such as Newark, Camden, Edison, and Bayonne are among the overburdened communities consistently at risk.
The question of economics weighs heavily for environmental justice advocates as we seek to work with allies and state agencies to bring clean technologies to our state, while simultaneously ensuring that we do not replicate the current systems of economic imbalance. We cannot and must not sacrifice the economic stability of our environmental justice communities while we develop long-term green technology options.
When picturing offshore wind, cities like Newark, Elizabeth, Rahway, and Camden may not immediately come to mind. However, these cities are either the sites of health-harming energy infrastructure, polluting ports, or both. These same communities, and others like them, have borne the burdens of keeping the state and the region running without seeing many benefits.
Understanding that the prospect of mega wind farms off the coast presented challenges, specifically to some of the communities at the Shore, we knew it would be doing fossil energy-impacted communities a disservice if we did not enter into the conversation.
Offshore wind is never going to be a singular, all-encompassing solution, but it does provide environmental justice communities an opportunity to be active participants in building safer, healthier, and more sustainable communities. Offshore wind offers not only a greener, cleaner technology than fossil fuels but also the potential for job investment in communities that have historically faced economic disadvantages and financial hardships.
Orsted’s announcement this week came not only as a surprise but as a disappointment. As the Murphy administration considers other renewable energy projects, it is imperative that state leaders are intentional about equally distributing both the benefits and risks of transitioning to new technologies.
The transition away from fossil fuels is an urgent necessity, but we must ensure that the choices we make today — which will continue to impact future generations — are ones that don’t leave anyone behind.
One solution is not going to fix climate change. One setback won’t stop climate action, either.
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