{"id":542395,"date":"2026-03-24T13:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:36:15","slug":"trump-despises-wind-farms-so-much-hes-paying-a-french-energy-giant-1-billion-to-stop-building-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542395\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump despises wind farms so much he’s paying a French energy giant $1 billion to stop building them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Oil giant TotalEnergies<\/a> will eliminate nearly $1 billion in offshore wind projects planned along the U.S. East Coast under the threat of cancelation from the Trump administration in exchange for redirecting the reimbursed funds to U.S. natural gas projects, primarily in Texas.<\/p>\n

In the so-called \u201clandmark agreement\u201d announced March 23 between TotalEnergies and the U.S. Interior Department, the federal government will reimburse the French energy giant about $928 million for its investments in the Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay projects offshore of New York and North Carolina, respectively, which were put on hold by the company after President Donald Trump was elected.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the CERAWeek by S&P Global event in Houston, TotalEnergies chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyann\u00e9 said he is opting \u201cnot to litigate, but to make pragmatic solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While TotalEnergies will continue to pursue onshore wind, solar, and battery storage projects in the U.S., he said, the company will abandon offshore wind that is now deemed too big and expensive without federal subsidies in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be innovative from time to time and pragmatic,\u201d Pouyann\u00e9 said. \u201cWe can recycle this money \u2026 into smarter investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Trump has pushed back against the expansion of both wind and solar energy in the U.S.\u2014in favor of fossil fuels instead\u2014but he has particular disdain for the massive offshore wind turbines that he deems unsightly.<\/p>\n

TotalEnergies also is a major player in natural gas in the U.S., especially in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The agreement with the Interior Department, while scant on details, specifically cites the companies increased investments in Houston-based NextDecade\u2019s Rio Grande LNG project in southern Texas, as well as in natural gas production investments in the Gulf of Mexico and in U.S. shale drilling.<\/p>\n

TotalEnergies is both a 17% shareholder of NextDecade and a major customer of the gas exports from the Rio Grande LNG project. TotalEnergies also is an owner of Sempra<\/a> Energy\u2019s Cameron LNG in Louisiana and an investor in Glenfarne\u2019s planned Alaska LNG.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside Pouyann\u00e9, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said TotalEnergies will investment in more reliable natural gas projects and not \u201cintermittent\u201d wind farms. \u201cWe are not driven by a climate fantasy,\u201d Burgum said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (TotalEnergies) thought there were going to be a bunch of subsidies,\u201d Burgum said, citing the ending of subsidies for wind and solar projects in Trump\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d approved last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Oil giant TotalEnergies will eliminate nearly $1 billion in offshore wind projects planned along the U.S. East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,3321,801,26862,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-542395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-energy-industry","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-natural-gas","12":"tag-totalenergies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}