Attorney General announces plans to sue Trump Administration over wind energy terminations
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KEYT) – California's Attorney General announced Tuesday that the state intends to file suit over recent deals between offshore wind companies and the Trump Administration to not pursue their projects in exchange for payments from the federal government.
California already invested over $100 million to develop wind energy projects at two federally-designated areas off the coast of the state, including using voter-approved climate funds, noted the California Energy Commission.
"At a time when the country needs more reliable and sustainable power supply, the Trump Administration is busy using taxpayer money to strike backroom buyouts that make clean-energy projects disappear. California won't stand idly by as the Trump Administration illegally strikes deals to kill offshore wind projects and replace them with more windfalls for his fossil fuel friends; we’re putting the Administration on notice that we intend to sue," Attorney General Bonta stated Tuesday. "California has already made substantial investments in clean wind energy that have advanced California's clean energy goals, created high-quality jobs, and bolstered our economy. My office will continue to fight back aggressively against the Trump Administration’s illegal attacks on wind energy projects."
Just last week, the Trump Administration announced its latest deal to kill offshore wind energy projects at the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area, in the New York Bight, and in the Gulf of Maine.
"Today marks a significant step in advancing President Trump's energy agenda and lowering energy prices for Americans," said Department of Justice Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Wednesday of last week. "By ending these offshore wind leases and pivoting investment toward dependable natural gas infrastructure in multiple states, Invenergy is helping revitalize American energy and national security. The Department of Justice looks forward to continued cooperation from companies that are reevaluating their energy investments."
The company that made the latest deal, Invenergy California Offshore LLC., shared in a press statement that it would receive a partial refund of capital it previously paid to the government for the leases and make investments into domestic natural gas and geothermal projects.
The deal comes as other offshore wind energy companies have agreed to terminate their wind-based, energy-generating projects and make conditional investments into other forms of energy approved by the Trump Administration.
Golden State Wind, LLC., previously agreed to abandon its lease within the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area in order to recover $120 million from the Trump Administration, but only after the company makes an investment of, "an equal amount in the development of U.S. oil and gas assets, energy infrastructure, and/or LNG projects along the Gulf Coast" stated the Interior Department.
The company's website does not indicate any previous oil nor natural gas projects and there is no public indication it pursued the termination of the offshore wind project.
The only remaining company that holds a federal lease at the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area, Equinor Wind US LLC., shared with Your News Channel last week, "There are no additional development activities planned at this time."
Attorney General Bonta filed the Notice of Intent to Sue and subpoenaed records from both Golden State Wind and Invenergy California over alleged violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
According to the Notice of Intent to Sue, the Trump Administration failed to follow federal law in the following ways:
- Did not hold a hearing before deciding to terminate the leases, a potential violation of 43 U.S.C. § 1334(a)(2)(A)
- Did not suspend the lease for five years before the cancellation, a potential violation of 43 U.S.C. § 1334(a)(2)(B)
- Did not notify or coordinate with Governors in impacted states, a potential violations of 43 U.S.C. §§ 1334(h) and 1337(p)(7)
- Did not include due consideration for statutory priorities requited by 43 U.S.C. § 1337(p)(4) and 30 C.F.R. § 585.102
- Did not follow prescribed methods for lease terminations detailed in 30 C.F.R. § 585.435 and the agreements provide compensation more than the statutory formula for lease cancellations described in 43 U.S.C. §§ 1334(a)(2)(C) and 1341(d)
Previous offshore wind deals, including an almost $1 billion deal with French energy giant TotalEnergies to terminate its offshore wind projects, are subject to Congressional investigation.
According to Ranking Member Huffman of the House Natural Resources Committee and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Raskin in April, the Trump Administration drew the almost $1 billion payment to TotalEnergies from the Judgement Fund, an account created by Congress in 1956 to pay court-ordered judgements and settlements against the government.
"When Secretary [of the Interior] Burgum signed the settlement agreements in March 2026, the agreements' own recitals framed it a settlement agreement. After coming under fire, he abandoned that characterization entirely," noted a letter issued to TotalEnergies' CEO by Congressmembers Huffman and Raskin in April of this year. "He [Secretary of the Interior Burgum] now publicly describes the settlement agreement as a refund. Neither characterization is legally sufficient to gift TotalEnergies with nearly $1 billion taxpayer dollars. Nor can Secretary Burgum cure one defect by retreating to another."
A Department of the Interior statement sent to Your News Channel in late April referred to the payments as "monies refunded" and "not taxpayer dollars" and that the "settlement" was "approved by the Department of Justice".
Those claims were not explained in requests for more information and are now subject to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Your News Channel.
The difference between categorizing the payments as a refund for a lease terminated by the federal government or a subsidized investment is a serious legal question that has been raised at both the state and federal level.
Ranking Members Raskin and Huffman argued in April that using the Judgement Fund, which is managed by the Treasury Department and funded by Congress, to settle, reimburse, or to subsidize a future investment would violate the above appropriations clause as it was not approved by Congress.
"The constitutional stakes are greater than a single improper payment," stated a letter from the Ranking Members to TotalEnergies. "The Judgment Fund has no annual cap, and individual disbursements receive no congressional review. Congress designed it that way because court judgments are involuntary; if a judge orders the government to pay, then it must pay. However, that logic does not extend to voluntary deals the executive branch chose to enter, on terms it negotiated, with counterparties it selected. Applied to those transactions, the Judgment Fund becomes the ultimate political slush fund."
Last week's announcement from the Department of the Interior also characterized the deal with Invenergy as a "settlement agreement" as well as a "partial reimbursement", but the exact text of the deal has not been shared publicly despite multiple requests by Your News Channel.
Back in April, the Ranking Members also noted potential violations of federal law cited in Attorney General Bonta's notice issued Tuesday.
According to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, when the federal government cancels an offshore energy lease, the lessee is "entitled to receive the lesser of two amounts: the fair value of the cancelled rights as of the date of cancellation, or the excess of the lessee's total expenditures on the lease over revenues received."
The selective nature of energy project terminations and forced restarts within the context of an energy crisis have also been noted by Your News Channel.
In December of last year, the Trump Administration suspended five large-scale offshore wind projects, including one project that was already generating electricity, "due to national security risks" detailed in still-classified reports the Interior Department shared in a press release.
Simultaneously, the Trump Administration argued that an energy emergency it declared last year required it to use a Cold War-era defense law to forcibly restart oil production at the Santa Ynez Unit locally due to national security concerns.
The same Administration is also responsible for cutting billions in Congressionally-approved energy investments, potentially outside of its legal authority, rescinding over 3.5 million acres of offshore waters already leased for energy generation, and adding $40 billion in subsidies exclusively for the oil and natural gas industry through the One Big Beautiful Bill.
These unilateral exemptions to federal laws on behalf of private oil and natural gas companies and explicit prohibition of alternative sources of energy all under the umbrella of national security are both not new and ongoing.
"Donald Trump is using your tax dollars to make America more dependent on dirty, volatile fossil fuels," Congressman Jared Huffman shared in a statement last week. "He is paying energy companies to kill homegrown offshore wind that will put electricity on the grid, lower energy bills, and create good jobs, and he is funneling that money straight back to fossil fuel, leaving families at the mercy of every price spike and global shock. It is hard to imagine a more backwards use of taxpayer money."
These unprompted cancellations come with a notable price tag as the Trump Administration has spent almost $2.6 billion terminating offshore wind energy projects across the nation.
"These agreements provide certainty and allow the developers to better serve the interests of the American people after the companies had to endure the irregular and unlawful short cuts used by the Biden administration for offshore wind leases. Billions of dollars were effectively taken from the pockets of hardworking taxpayers and funneled into energy projects that were not only unreliable, but also unaffordable," argued the U.S. Department of the Interior in response to Your News Channel's inquiries last week. "As the Department of War identified, there were serious national security risks that demanded immediate attention – which critics conveniently ignore. And let's be clear: these were voluntary agreements. No one was forced to sign them."
Settlement agreements that have been publicly released to date explicitly state, and the characterization of the deals as settlements indicates, that offshore wind energy companies were facing federal lawsuits and stop work orders if they did not agree to the deals.
"[O]n April 27, 2026, DOI [U.S. Department of the Interior] announced it would terminate the lease [at the Morro Bay Offshore Wind Energy Area] in a secretive agreement with GSW [Golden State Wind] that purportedly 'settles' litigation that GSW never brought, challenging action that DOI never took," noted the California Energy Commission in a press statement issued Tuesday. "DOI claimed that unspecified national security concerns justified the cancellation, even though the federal government had already reviewed and approved the lease area after years of analysis and consultation with the U.S. Department of Defense."
Attorney General Bonta's notice about the state's intent to sue provided a 60-day window for the Trump Administration and involved companies to cure the alleged violations.
Your News Channel has reached out to the Department of the Interior and the Justice Department for more information and their respective responses will be added to this article when they are received.
