The Trump administration announced Monday that it will pay a French energy company $1 billion to forfeit its plans to build two offshore wind farms off the East Coast, syphoning the investment into fossil fuel projects.
The deal will reimburse the company, TotalEnergies, nearly $928 million for its leases to build the wind farms off New York and North Carolina. TotalEnergies will then invest the money in a liquefied natural gas facility in Texas, oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and shale gas production, according to a news release from the Interior Department.
The agreement falls in line with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, which prioritizes the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity over clean, renewable energy projects. It’s also a personal move for the president, who has been an enemy of offshore wind projects since he lost his bid to stop one that was visible from one of his Scotland golf courses in 2015.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the settlement during an energy conference in Houston, saying the administration is “allowing” TotalEnergies to “redirect those dollars that have been paid into the Treasury to affordable, reliable and secure oil and natural gas production in the U.S.”
The leases were granted under the Biden administration.
The Interior Department and the Justice Department did not return MS NOW’s request for comment on the deal or how the payment to TotalEnergies will be financed.
“Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” Patrick Pouyanné, chief executive of TotalEnergies, said in a news release Monday.
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Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
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