President Trump's administration is paying almost $900 million to kill off two more wind power projects. The Interior Department says it will return a combined $885 million in lease payments to developers of two planned wind farms—one off New York and New Jersey, the other off California—in exchange for the companies giving up their federal leases and steering that money into oil and gas projects, including liquefied natural gas facilities along the Gulf Coast, the New York Times reports. The move mirrors a deal last month with French giant TotalEnergies, which walked away from two other offshore wind projects while pledging new fossil-fuel investments in return for being reimbursed around $1 billion.
The latest agreements terminate Bluepoint Wind, backed by a BlackRock-linked fund and the Ocean Winds joint venture, and Golden State Wind, a 50-50 partnership between Ocean Winds and Reventus Power. Both projects were in the early stages of development. Both ventures also agreed not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the US, though that promise doesn't bind their parent companies. Each project would have been capable of powering more than 1 million homes when completed, the AP reports.
- A separate Ocean Winds project off Massachusetts, SouthCoast Wind, technically survives but has been effectively stalled since Trump returned to office. "When the underlying conditions in a market change, we must adapt," Ocean Winds North America CEO Michael Brown said, calling the lease payment refund "the right outcome" for investors.
Trump has long attacked offshore wind, falsely claiming that offshore turbines don't work, and his administration has tried multiple ways to slow the emerging industry, the Times reports. A December order to halt construction on five East Coast wind farms has run into court challenges, but these lease buyouts—negotiated directly with developers—may be harder to contest. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, arguing that wind power is expensive and "unreliable," said projects would only have been viable with Biden-era taxpayer subsidies, the AP reports.
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