TRENTON — Lawmakers joined with environmentalists Monday to call on New Jersey to be the first state to build offshore wind farms that provide enough energy to power more than 450,000 homes per year.
On the eve of of Earth Day, the group endorsed an initiative to create 1,750 megawatts of energy by 2020 through the country’s first offshore wind farm off the New Jersey coast. The plan exceeds the goals set out in the draft released last week of the new energy master plan, which calls for at least 1,000 megawatts by 2020.
Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex, said the more aggressive initiative puts the state on track to meet the goals laid out in the Global Warming Response Act, which calls for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.