In a new effort to curb offshore wind development after courts limited its executive actions, the Trump administration said the Interior Department reached an agreement with TotalEnergies that will pay the company about $1 billion to walk away from offshore wind leases off North Carolina and New York. The department said TotalEnergies agreed to what it described as a refund of its lease payments for those projects, and that it will invest the money in liquefied natural gas and other fossil fuel projects instead.
The Interior Department framed the deal as an “innovative agreement” with the French energy company, saying the “American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry,” according to the announcement. The administration’s critics, however, said the approach amounts to using federal funds to stop projects rather than to address energy needs.
TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the refunded lease fees would finance a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas and the company’s oil-and-gas activities, describing it as a “more efficient use of capital” for investments in the United States. In addition, the company pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the country, according to the report.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, criticized the plan, telling The Associated Press that it “sets a dangerous precedent and is a shortsighted misuse of taxpayer dollars.” Robin Shaffer, president of the anti-offshore wind group Protect Our Coast New Jersey, supported the deal as “out of the box” and said the administration, after losing in court, needed a way to take back leases that should not have been issued because of the harm offshore wind development can cause to the marine environment.
The agreement comes after federal judges thwarted multiple efforts by President Donald Trump to stop offshore wind using executive action and other administrative steps. On Dec. 8, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris vacated an executive order that had temporarily halted offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and paused permitting for wind projects, ruling it was unlawful after a coalition of state attorneys general challenged the order. The administration appealed that decision, according to the report.
Later, the administration ordered construction to stop on five major East Coast offshore wind projects, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five to resume construction, with the courts concluding the government did not show the national security risk was so imminent that construction had to halt.
The payout also drew scrutiny from Democrats as crude oil and gasoline prices surged, including in states that have begun receiving power from offshore wind projects. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia called the payment “beyond idiotic” in a statement to AP, saying it involved giving “an energy company $1 billion of taxpayer money to pack up its jobs and invest elsewhere — in the middle of an unpopular and unwise war that is spiking energy costs.” Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Maine Democrat, said she questioned whether the payout is legal under appropriations law and said she would raise the matter with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during budget hearings.
Environmental groups also attacked the decision. Kit Kennedy, who directs the power division at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the proposed payment a “boondoggle” that “transfers nearly $1 billion from American taxpayers to a foreign corporation and the oil and gas industry.” Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said she would not guess whether the Trump administration would pay to end other offshore wind deals, but she said it was “clearly” willing to take “extreme measures,” adding, “Will they do this again? Maybe,”