People’s Action Institute worked with member affiliates New Jersey Resource Project (NJRP) and Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) to conduct two deep canvassing projects focused on building community support for offshore wind power development. In the Spring and early Summer of 2024, canvassers from these organizations held conversations with over 1,400 local residents in Lacey Township, NJ and the Midcoast region of Maine combined.

Since 2018, the Climate Advocacy Lab has distributed Climate Justice Microgrants to 25 environmental justice and climate justice organizations around the United States who are doing powerful work to protect and improve their communities.

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

Fossil fuel interests are working with climate denial think tanks and community groups to obstruct offshore wind projects. These community groups have made national headlines for their opposition to projects in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. They appear to be new organizations that operate organically and independently, but they often share legal support, personnel, talking points, and financial resources with major organizations that have been blocking climate policy for the last several decades. This resource shows how think tanks in the anti-offshore wind movement have received donations from six fossil fuel-interested donors between 2017 and 2021. Of these donations, $16,278,401 has gone to members of a grassroots-appearing coalition at the center of the movement. As public relations and obstruction specialists actively engage local groups to block offshore wind projects, the climate and environmental justice consequences are dire.

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.

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.

In 2020, a group of New Jersey organizers helped get the country's most progressive environmental justice legislation at the time passed. The short film "A Big Win for Environmental Justice Organizers" follows community-based activists from Ironbound Community Corporation in moving the statewide legislation forward. The Lab hosted a conversation with the contributors, sharing their insights and lessons learned from a community organizing perspective, so that other local groups feel empowered to take on statewide initiatives as well. 

In 2020, a group of New Jersey organizers helped get the country's most progressive environmental justice legislation at the time passed - S232. This documentary delves into the role of community-based activists from Ironbound Community Corporation in moving the statewide legislation forward. By focusing on the community organizing perspective, this film offers insights and lessons learned from ICC so that other local groups feel empowered to take on statewide initiatives as well. Given community organizers know their neighbors, experience the impact of environmental injustice firsthand, and understand how policies affect people's lives, they are the experts whose voices are critically needed in halls of power. The accompanying discussion guide attached provides a road map for community organizers across the country who hope to translate local relationships into statewide legislative victories.

Survey data from 19 competitive House districts across the US revealed strong support (59%), across party lines, for the American Jobs Plan. Notably, the provisions that would address the climate crisis garnered even stronger support than the overall infrastructure plan did.

Among the specific provisions designed to address the climate crisis:

• 82% of voters support investments to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize public transportation to ensure it is cleaner and able to serve more people.
• 81% of voters support overhauling our country’s drinking water infrastructure.
• 70% of voters support addressing the challenge of climate change by shifting to greater use of clean energy, reducing carbon pollution from vehicles and industry, and making homes and buildings more energy efficient.
• 69% of voters support investments in clean energy such as wind and solar power by extending tax credits to spur innovation and manufacturing.
• 61% of voters support investments in electric vehicles and charging stations to reduce pollution and help more Americans buy clean cars.