PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) 鈥� The Trump administration will pay $1 billion to a French company to walk away from as the administration ramps up its campaign against offshore wind and other renewable energy.
TotalEnergies has agreed to what’s essentially a refund of its leases for projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in fossil fuel projects instead, the Department of Interior announced Monday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to halt offshore wind construction, but .
The Interior Department hailed the 鈥渋nnovative agreement鈥� with the French energy giant and said, 鈥渢he American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry.鈥�
Environmental groups denounced the deal as an alternate way to block wind projects, with one group calling it a 鈥渂illion-dollar bribe鈥� to kill clean energy.
鈥淎fter 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,鈥� said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action.
In his second term, Trump has gone , which he says will lower costs for families, increase reliability and help the U.S. maintain global leadership in artificial intelligence.
TotalEnergies had already paused its two projects after Trump was elected.
The company pledged to not develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States. CEO Patrick Pouyann茅 said in a statement that TotalEnegeries renounced offshore wind development in the United States in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees, 鈥渃onsidering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country鈥檚 interest.鈥�
Pouyann茅 said the refunded lease fees will finance the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas and the development of its oil and gas activities, calling it a 鈥渕ore efficient use of capital鈥� in the U.S.
After it makes those investments, TotalEnergies will be reimbursed, up to the amount paid in lease purchases for offshore wind, according to the DOI.
鈥淲e welcome TotalEnergies鈥� commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans鈥� monthly bills,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said Trump was 鈥渦sing a pay-not-to-play scheme鈥� to pressure the French company not to build offshore wind, calling it 鈥渁n outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.鈥� Hochul said she remains committed to moving forward with an 鈥渁ll-of-the-above approach鈥� that includes renewables, nuclear power and other energy sources.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said this is 鈥渁 terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country.鈥�
鈥淥ur state has the offshore wind potential to power millions of homes with renewable American-made energy. It鈥檚 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 in a statement.
The Biden administration as a climate change solution. Trump began reversing U.S. energy policies his first day in office with executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. Globally the , with China leading the world in new installations.
The Interior Department halted construction on five major East Coast offshore wind projects days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. , and federal judges allowed all five projects to resume construction, essentially concluding that the government did not show the risk was so imminent that construction must halt.
On Monday, one of the wind farms targeted by the administration, , started delivering power to the grid for Virginia. The developer, Richmond-based Dominion Energy, announced the milestone.
Ted Kelly, clean energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, called the proposed deal 鈥渁n outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most.鈥�
East Coast states are building offshore wind because it boosts affordable electricity supply on the grid, even as natural gas prices are rising, Kelly said.
TotalEnergies purchased a lease for its Carolina Long Bay project in 2022 for about $133 million. It aimed to generate more than 1 gigawatt there, enough to power about 300,000 homes. It purchased the lease off New York and New Jersey, also in 2022, for $795 million. This was planned as a larger project, with the potential to generate 3 gigawatts of clean energy to power nearly one million homes. TotalEnergies is involved in major offshore wind projects in Europe and Asia.
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Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York and Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina contributed to this report.
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