Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

The governors of New Jersey and Oregon are leaning hard into the Biden administration’s offshore wind goals, but acknowledged obstacles to their vision during the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference in Miami on Tuesday.

Projects face opposition from commercial fishing interests and line-of-sight objectors, according to the governors. “We want to make sure that we’re not ignoring people,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said. “Those [issues] are manageable in my opinion.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown also identified transmission lines as a “huge challenge for the entire Western region,” including how to construct them safely with the wildfire risk and in the right way, particularly for tribal communities. Murphy said he is optimistic about his administration’s commitment to 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035 despite the transmission challenges, but noted that “sometimes you have to, for lack of a better phrase, drop the hammer and use something like eminent domain.”