New Jersey moved one step closer to more efficient, cleaner energy use this week when Gov. Jon S. Corzine and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar were in Atlantic City to award five leases to companies interested in developing windmills off the New Jersey coast.

"This is tremendous news for New Jersey and I thank Secretary Salazar and the Obama Administration for issuing these leases which are so critical to getting the development of our offshore wind turbine projects underway," Governor Corzine said on Tuesday at Caesar's Pier overlooking the ocean. "New Jersey's Outer Continental Shelf is a resource that holds great promise for our energy independence and should be considered a haven for the clean, renewable and environmentally friendly energy that wind power provides.''

Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom are already using offshore wind and many other European countries have projects on the drawing board but there are no offshore wind farms in the United States. The leases awarded this week are the first to be granted by the federal government. Tuesday's action clears the way for New Jersey to be a trailblazer harnessing the wind over the ocean to provide power to homes.

Under the Energy Master Plan, adopted in 2008, Governor Corzine set the country's most aggressive offshore wind goals of any state in the nation. The goal is to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2012 and 3,000 megawatts by 2020, enough to power nearly 350,000 homes.

The exploratory leases granted by the federal government give the companies the right to build meteorological towers six to 18 miles offshore to collect critical data on wind intensity, speed and direction needed to determine the feasibility of building wind turbines offshore.

The five leases were granted to four companies. Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy, Fisherman's Energy of New Jersey and Bluewater Wind of Delaware all received one lease. Deepwater Wind received two.

"Today, we have taken a giant step forward to enhance energy security for the region and our nation" Governor Corzine said. "That means thousands of new, high-tech jobs for New Jersey – the jobs of the future, where workers will construct and install the energy production capacity for generations to come.''