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The Trump administration has reached a nearly $1 billion deal with French energy giant TotalEnergies to cancel two offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and North Carolina — a move critics are calling an "outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars."
According to Politico, the Department of the Interior announced Monday that it would terminate TotalEnergies' leases for its Attentive Energy project off the New York and New Jersey coasts and its Carolina Long Bay project off North Carolina — a combined value of $928 million. The agreement was signed at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, Texas.
As part of the deal, TotalEnergies will first invest an amount equal to the lease values into fossil fuel projects in the United States — including helping finance construction of the Rio Grande liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Brownsville, Texas, as well as oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and shale gas production. After TotalEnergies makes those investments, the U.S. government will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar, up to the $928 million paid for the wind leases.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum framed the deal as a win for American energy consumers. "The era of taxpayers subsidizing unreliable, unaffordable and unsecured energy is officially over," Burgum told reporters in Houston. He added that the Interior Department welcomed TotalEnergies' "commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans' monthly bills."
TotalEnergies Chair and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the company had "decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees," calling the LNG and oil investments a "more efficient use of capital" in the country. Pouyanné said the company continues to invest in solar, onshore wind, and batteries in other markets.
The deal is the latest maneuver by the Trump administration against the U.S. offshore wind industry, after a string of legal defeats. President Trump's administration had previously issued stop-work orders for five major East Coast offshore wind projects, but federal judges lifted all five orders, ruling them "arbitrary and capricious." With the courts blocking those efforts, the administration turned to the buyout strategy instead.
The Attentive Energy project had been planned to generate up to 3 gigawatts of power — enough to power nearly one million homes. The Carolina Long Bay project was designed to generate more than 1 gigawatt, enough to power roughly 300,000 homes. Both projects were in the early stages of development and had been paused since November 2024, when Pouyanné halted them following President Trump's election.
The deal drew sharp criticism from state leaders and energy advocates. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the agreement "an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars," saying President Trump was "using a pay-not-to-play scheme" to pressure the company into abandoning clean energy. Hochul said she remains committed to an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that includes renewables, nuclear power, and other sources.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein called it "a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country." "It's ludicrous and wasteful that the Trump administration is spending $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay off a company to stop it from investing private dollars to create the clean energy we need," Stein said.
Even some Republicans raised objections. New York Republican House member Nicole Malliotakis said the agreement "sounds like a colossal waste of taxpayer money."
Environmental groups were equally critical. Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, said: "After losing again and again in court on his illegal stop-work orders, Trump has found another way to strangle offshore wind: pay them to walk away." Ted Kelly, clean energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, called the deal "an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most."
Some energy analyst also questioned the economic logic of the swap. Seth Kaplan, vice president at energy market consultant Grid Strategies, told E&E News: "You removed a planned large energy production facility that would solely have produced electricity fed into the American grid, and instead you're going to build a liquefaction terminal that will take American natural gas and send it abroad. Do the math on that."
The offshore wind advocacy group Oceantic Network called the buyout "political theater," warning that it pulls clean energy capacity out of the pipeline "when energy prices are skyrocketing." The group noted that offshore wind helped stabilize power supply and rates in the Northeast during Winter Storm Fern.
Meanwhile, on the same day the deal was announced, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project — one of the five farms previously targeted by the administration's stop-work orders — began delivering power to the grid for the first time, according to its developer, Dominion Energy.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island called the deal "just more selling out the public for the fossil fuel industry," but said bipartisan permitting reform talks would continue.
The administration has not disclosed whether similar buyout offers have been extended to other offshore wind lease holders.
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