US to pay almost $1bn to French energy company to kill wind project plan | Trump administration
While the fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran increased global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration announced that it would pay $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies to cancel plans to build wind farms off the east coast of the United States.
The deal is the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry, which has faced rolling cuts to multibillion-dollar projects under Donald Trump.
Trump said he found wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient, and that his administration was taking action to increase domestic fossil fuel production.
In the deal announced Monday, TotalEnergies will give up two offshore leases it purchased in New York and North Carolina. Trump’s Interior Department will reimburse the company for $928 million it paid for leases under Joe Biden’s administration.
US Interior Department promises TotalEnergies will not develop any new offshore wind projects in the country expression The company will invest approximately $1 billion this year in the development of four trains at the Rio Grande LNG facility in Texas and the development of conventional oil production and shale gas production in the US Gulf, the statement said.
The deal comes as US-Israeli attacks on Iran have triggered the largest ever disruption in oil supplies. accordingly The conflict highlights the dangers of a fossil fuel-based energy system, the International Energy Agency and climate advocates say.
“This is political theater intended to hide the fact that offshore wind capacity is being pulled from the pipeline while other offshore wind projects continue to provide reliable and affordable energy to the grid while energy prices are soaring,” Sam Salustro, senior vice president of pro-offshore wind group Oceantic Network, said in a statement. “Paying to remove affordable, home-grown energy from the equation leaves American consumers struggling to pay their electric bills.”
It also follows the Trump administration’s attempt last year to end construction of five wind farms on the east coast, each of which had already been permitted. After states and developers sued, courts ruled that every wind project must be able to proceed.
One of these offshore wind farms, the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, completed construction this month. A few days ago, Revolution Wind, another project located off the coast of Rhode Island, began supplying power to the New England grid.
Lena Moffitt, executive director of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action, called the new deal “a taxpayer-funded bribe to kill homegrown clean energy and give the money directly to oil and gas executives.”
“Trump is deliberately deepening our dependence on the same volatile fossil fuel markets that his reckless war has destabilized — while also destroying the domestic clean energy that could protect Americans from this volatility,” he said in a statement.
“Offshore wind is the clear path to a cheaper, cleaner future, and it’s time for Donald Trump to govern by facts rather than loyalty to corporate polluters,” said Xavier Boatright, deputy legislative director of the national environmental group Sierra Club.
Patrick Pouyanne, Total’s CEO, said offshore wind is not the most affordable way to generate electricity in the United States.
Pouyanne and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the deal at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.
