The Trump administration has forced a Canadian-backed renewable energy company to abandon its landmark wind power project — and is demanding an equivalent investment in US fossil fuel development if the company wants to recoup $120 million USD in offshore wind leases.
The project, Golden State Wind, is a joint venture wind power project off the coast of California. Reventus Power, a UK-based, wholly owned portfolio company, is the wind power generation venture of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). As of 2024, the Canada Pension Plan had over $1 billion CAD invested in wind power generation through Reventus Power.
“Canadians would be horrified to learn that millions of dollars from the Canada Pension Plan are being diverted (potentially illegally) to advance the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda instead of [being] invested in renewable energy as intended,” said Patrick DeRochie, Senior Manager with Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health. Shift Action is a Canadian pension watchdog group that pressures Canadians’ pensions to divest from fossil fuels.
The US Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that Golden State Wind had voluntarily ended its offshore wind lease in a statement issued on April 27.
The project is a partnership between Reventus and Ocean Winds, a company specializing in the development, construction and operation of offshore wind farms. The DOI indicated that the company has agreed to make “financial investments in reliable conventional energy projects.” The DOI statement further said that Golden State Wind would be eligible to recover “$120 million in lease fees after an investment has been made of an equal amount in the development of US oil and gas assets, energy infrastructure, and/or LNG projects along the Gulf Coast.”
The state of California is now investigating the matter. The California Energy Commission told the Associated Press on May 4 that it issued an administrative subpoena to Golden State Wind. The commission is seeking documentation about the agreement, with chair David Hochschild characterizing the arrangement as a “back room deal” that “turns back the clock on innovation.”
“The fact that CPPIB’s welcome investment in offshore wind is being hijacked by the Trump administration to prop up fossil fuels should tell CPPIB all it needs to know: the oil and gas industry can no longer compete with renewables on a level playing field,” said DeRochie in a statement to Canada’s National Observer. “The oil and gas industry is resorting to blatant corruption on behalf of captured regulators and climate-denying authoritarians in an attempt to slow fossil fuels’ terminal decline.”
The Interior Department said the agreement it made with Golden State Wind was based on an earlier arrangement secured with TotalEnergies, the French energy giant. In late-March, Total agreed to a refund of its leases for offshore wind projects near North Carolina and New York State. The agreement involved the Trump administration paying the money back to Total, which in turn invested the money into US fossil fuel projects. Environmentalists denounced the agreement as a billion-dollar bribe to kill clean energy projects.
Canada’s National Observer reached out to the CPPIB for comment. Frank Switzer Managing Director, Communications with the CPPIB, would not answer specific questions addressed to the Canada Pension Plan, instead saying they should be sent to Reventus.
Upon announcing their investment in Golden State Wind, the CPPIB said “this investment aligns well with our efforts to reduce carbon emissions across our portfolio while continuing to deliver strong, long-term risk-adjusted returns for the Fund’s contributors and beneficiaries.”
The same statement said the CPPIB was investing $30 million USD in “workforce development and supply chain initiatives and to work closely with key local stakeholders to maximize the benefits to California from the emerging offshore wind industry.” DeRochie notes that this amount is not included in the agreement made with the Trump administration.
“You would think that this kind of dirty dealing that puts its own renewable energy investments at risk would be enough for CPPIB to cut ties with fossil fuels and stop investing the Canada Pension Plan in companies that are fighting tooth-and-nail to delay the transition to a climate-safe, clean-energy future,” said DeRochie. “Instead, the CEO of CPPIB is telling Bay Street that it remains ‘steadfast’ in its support for the oil and gas industry.”
According to the DOI statement, the company has decided not to pursue any new wind power development projects in the United States.