{"id":300599,"date":"2026-05-05T09:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300599\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:41:07","slug":"california-investigates-trump-administrations-deal-to-end-an-offshore-wind-project-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300599\/","title":{"rendered":"California investigates Trump administration’s deal to end an offshore wind project"},"content":{"rendered":"

California is investigating one of the Trump administration’s deals<\/a> to end an offshore wind project. <\/p>\n

Golden State Wind was a floating offshore wind project proposed off California\u2019s central coast. The California Energy Commission said Monday it issued an administrative subpoena to Golden State Wind. <\/p>\n

The commission said it is seeking documents and information about the company’s recent agreement with the Department of Interior<\/a> to accept a payout in exchange for voluntarily abandoning its offshore wind lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration is recklessly spending billions of taxpayer dollars on backroom deals that would turn back the clock on innovation,\u201d CEC Chair David Hochschild said in a statement. \u201cCalifornians deserve immediate answers about the nature of this payout. Taxpayer dollars should be used to build a sustainable energy future, not to pay to make projects disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is spending nearly $2 billion<\/a> to get energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said companies were sold a product that was only viable when propped up by massive taxpayer subsidies when they bid for these offshore wind leases in 2022, under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The Republican administration adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts<\/a> to stop offshore wind development through executive action. Three agreements have been announced.<\/p>\n

Under the first deal, made public in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting $1 billion<\/a> \u2014 essentially a refund of its leases for offshore wind projects off North Carolina and New York \u2014 if it invests the money in fossil fuel projects instead. In the latest deals announced last week,<\/a> the administration said Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind agreed to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided they invest equally in fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Both Golden State and Bluepoint are co-owned by Ocean Winds, a joint venture of EDP Renewables and French energy giant Engie. Bluepoint Wind was an offshore wind project in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York. <\/p>\n

When asked about the subpoena Monday, Ocean Winds said it does not comment on open or potential litigation.<\/p>\n

This investigation sets the stage for legal action from California to safeguard renewable energy, as well as the thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment the state was counting on, said Eddie Ahn, executive director of Brightline Defense, an environmental justice nonprofit working to advance offshore wind in California.<\/p>\n

A letter from California Attorney General Rob Bonta\u2019s office to Golden State Wind says the state anticipates potential litigation involving the federal government and parties to lease buyouts impacting California\u2019s energy needs and offshore wind programs. California has invested about $100 million to support offshore wind development in order to accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy and address climate change.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Congress are investigating<\/a>, too. U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, are demanding information about TotalEnergies agreement. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is investigating one of the Trump administration’s deals to end an offshore wind project. Golden State Wind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,20,15916,536,5873,127042,643,83584,28416,13912,2794,17],"class_list":["post-300599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-climate","tag-david-hochschild","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-burgum","tag-eddie-ahn","tag-environment","tag-jamie-raskin","tag-jared-huffman","tag-joe-biden","tag-rob-bonta","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}