The Trump administration is preparing settlement agreements that would transfer nearly $1 billion to TotalEnergies in return for the company abandoning two proposed offshore wind projects.
Under the proposed deals, the Interior Department would cancel the federal water leases tied to the two developments off the U.S. coast - projects identified as Attentive Energy, located off New York State, and Carolina Long Bay, off North Carolina. Following the lease cancellations, the Justice Department would provide more than $928 million to TotalEnergies, reimbursing the firm for its winning bids in lease sales that took place during the Biden administration.
As a condition of the settlements, TotalEnergies would forgo moving ahead with construction of the two wind farms and would commit to redirecting capital into natural gas infrastructure projects in Texas.
The set of proposals marks a change in the current administration's strategy toward the offshore wind industry. It comes after federal judges blocked five earlier attempts to halt wind farms that were under construction along the East Coast. The settlement approach would use lease cancellations and financial reimbursement to remove the two projects from development pipelines.
Details available in the draft agreements outline the sequence of actions: lease cancellations by the Interior Department, a reimbursement payment exceeding $928 million from the Justice Department to TotalEnergies, and the company’s abandonment of the two named projects. The documents also specify the company’s commitment to invest in gas infrastructure in Texas as part of the settlement terms.
Observers should note that the proposals are in draft form. They would alter the status of federal leases for Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay and provide a substantial reimbursement to a major energy company while securing an explicit reallocation of planned investment from offshore wind to natural gas infrastructure in a single U.S. state.
Clear summary
The administration is drafting settlements that would cancel federal leases for two offshore wind projects and pay TotalEnergies more than $928 million to abandon those projects, with a commitment from the company to invest in natural gas infrastructure in Texas. This approach follows earlier judicially blocked attempts to stop East Coast wind farms.