former Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney is wading into what's become a controversial Topic in the state expanding the offshore wind industry he's hosting a conference today touting it as a way to cut down on greenhouse gases and create jobs but offshore wind has also become the foil of Republican leaders who blame the industry for recent Marine Mammal deaths without evidence to back up their claims Ted Goldberg reports former Senate President Steve Sweeney stopped by a Rowan University today to tout New Jersey's potential for offshore wind energy and air his grievances about the Garden State not developing offshore energy as quickly as other countries in Europe three decades if not more they don't have any issues it's the same ocean I don't think we have any issues what we do have is politics which needs to stop people have long argued that offshore wind helps the environment so speakers tried a different Tech they say offshore energy means more jobs especially for people who aren't college educated maybe they're they're really good at Heights and after that they don't have any other skills around offshore wind but we can train them we can bring them into this Workforce maybe you're not good at Heights but you're good with your hands doing other things we're short on electricians and all these other kind of key jobs there's a huge opportunity for job creation huge talk about tens of thousands of new jobs there are no other Industries in New Jersey that you can point to that have that kind of growth potential we're going to protect public health and safety first and foremost we are going to protect our environment by reducing emissions and improving air quality and yes we're going to promote really sensible economic and public policy a representative for the Danish Energy company orstead says onshore construction could start by the end of the year for the ocean wind project and electricity could come from offshore wind as soon as the end of next year Senator Sweeney blames partisan fighting for that timeline not being sooner it shouldn't be politics it should be facts and nothing but facts this offshore wind is not just good for the United States but it's very important for the state of New Jersey as Sweeney said these words at Rowan New Jersey senate Republicans continued their call for a moratorium on offshore surveys for wind farms the Senators say there could be a connection between surveys and the increasing number of dead whales washing up on New Jersey's beaches and they're not satisfied with the state officials and scientists who say there isn't one nobody can say with certainty because there's been no studies that the combination of sonar in one area and Drilling in another area has not created a situation where these animals are disoriented or frightened to the point where they're leading to their own demise and so that's what remain concerned about one thing that our side of the aisle consistently gets accused of is not following the science so where is the harm if we pause for either 30 days or 60 days in this project to see if we are going to see a continuation of the unprecedented number of whale deaths and dolphin debts that we have seen I don't think there's a debate I think there's swirling misinformation because of our emissions of fossil fuels over decades and decades are warming our oceans acidifying our oceans changing habitat patterns and forcing particularly juvenile whales that are in search of food sources to come into conflict with Amplified vessel traffic orstead has started a training program for 21 new jobs associated with the ocean wind project anyone who completes the training will be eligible for jobs starting at sixty five thousand dollars a year the deadline to apply is June 5th at Rowan University I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]