Trump Administration Inks $1.22 Billion Deal to Terminate Multiple Offshore Wind Projects
CALIFORNIA COAST, Calif. (KEYT) – On Thursday, RWE U.S. Offshore announced that it entered a deal with the Trump Administration to receive $1.22 billion to abandon three offshore wind energy projects.
"RWE U.S. Offshore has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of the Interior to resolve claims against the U.S. government and relinquish its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York, California, and Louisiana," the company shared in a press release about Thursday's deal. "After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. The settlement resolves RWE U.S. Offshore's legal claims and provides $1.22 billion in settlement funds. The company determined that this resolution best serves the interests of its stakeholders and allows it to direct resources toward energy projects that can be advanced with certainty."
Thursday's deal with RWE resulted in the termination of large-scale offshore wind energy projects at the Northern California Lease Areas west of Eureka as well as in the New York Bight and the waters off of Louisiana.
The image below shows the original bidders for two large offshore wind energy projects along the California coast.
“The most corrupt, lawless administration in American history is once again flouting the law and attempting to use over $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to kill off clean energy projects slated to create thousands of good jobs and lower electricity bills for Californians," argued a statement issued Thursday by Congressman Jared Huffman, the Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "Trump is strongarming companies into taking these illegal deals and abandoning offshore wind projects that would put huge amounts of cheap electricity on the grid and lower electricity prices. Instead, he is pressuring them to invest not only in dirty fossil fuel projects, but in LNG export facilities that push domestic energy prices even higher at a time when American families are reeling from skyrocketing costs caused by his reckless war of choice in Iran."
Thursday's deal comes as other offshore wind energy companies have agreed to terminate their wind-based, energy-generating projects in exchange for investments into other forms of energy approved by the Trump Administration even as recently as June.
"RWE Americas has announced plans to invest approximately €17 billion in the U.S. over the next six years to grow its generation capacity from approximately 13 GW across 27 states today to 22 GW by 2031," shared RWE in a press release Thursday. "In 2025 alone, RWE Americas commissioned 2 GW of new power generation capacity in the United States."
If those announced plans were conditions within Thursday's deal to terminate offshore wind energy projects nationwide is awaiting confirmation from both parties to the agreement.
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 in June, "There are no additional development activities planned at this time" and the offshore wind company was contacted today regarding the latest deal terminating offshore wind energy projects nationwide.
Your News Channel also reached out to RWE Offshore Wind Holdings LLC. as well as the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of the Treasury for more information about the specific conditions within Thursday's deal and their respective responses will be added to this article when they are received.
Details in prior offshore wind energy termination deals have landed the Trump Administration in legal hot water.
Prior 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 and a lawsuit from the Attorney General of California.
In April, the Trump Administration announced it was paying TotalEnergies $928,333,333 to not pursue two offshore wind energy projects in the Atlantic Ocean and instead invest in domestic fossil fuel projects.
According to Ranking Member Huffman of the House Natural Resources Committee and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Raskin 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 Wednesday. "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."
Your News Channel reached out to the Interior Department in late April about the TotalEnergies deal and a federal spokesperson referred to the payments as "monies refunded" and "not taxpayer dollars".
Those claims are now subject to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Your News Channel and one remains unfulfilled outside of the statutory limit for an accurate response and subject to litigation.
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.
Ranking Members Raskin and Huffman argued 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 in April. "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."
Thursday's announcement from RWE characterized the deal with the Interior Department as a settlement agreement to resolve legal claims made by the company.
"One of the projects illegally canceled in this fake settlement is off the coast of Humboldt County in my district," Congressman Huffman noted Thursday. "The benefits of that project were tremendous — revitalizing the economy of a rural community, creating thousands of quality jobs, and lowering utility bills for families all across California. Like a mob boss, Trump tightened the screws on RWE and, shamefully, the company capitulated and went along with this sham deal that robs the American people and makes a mockery of RWE's stated commitments to clean energy. When these illegal, fake settlements are reversed by the courts and/or future congressional action — and they will be — RWE and others who participate in these charades will own every bit of the shame they deserve."
Back in April, the Ranking Members noted that under 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."
If the repayment method prescribed in federal law was used in Thursday's $1.22 billion deal with RWE remains unanswered.
Your News Channel was able to confirm that RWE offshore U.S. Gulf LLC. placed a multi-million dollar winning bid for renewable energy lease number OCS-G 37334 off of Louisiana that took effect on Nov. 1, 2023 and a February 25, 2022, announcement by RWE stated its successful bid for a lease for an offshore wind energy lease in the New York Bight area (OCS-A-0539) was for $1.1 billion.
"President Trump is committed to unleashing affordable, reliable American energy for our country’s communities and putting the American people first through common-sense action," argued Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum earlier this year. "The offshore wind leases were sold under the assumptions that taxpayers would indefinitely subsidize costly, unreliable projects and that no national security concerns were implicated - both assumptions have since been proven false. Under President Trump, companies are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs. We applaud Invenergy for recognizing the importance of baseload power and investing in energy solutions that deliver real benefits to American consumers."
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.
Federal courts have struck down each of those stop work orders despite the use of national security as a reason for terminating the projects.
Simultaneously, the Trump Administration argued that an energy emergency it declared last year requirs 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.
"These fake settlements have now reached the tune of about $4 billion," Congressman Huffman stated Thursday. "Trump is using the Judgment Fund as a slush fund to pay for it. This is the same pot of taxpayer money Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to use for his so-called 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' to pay off convicted J6 [January 6th] felons. Once again, we see this administration's priorities laid bare: treating a fund that exists to resolve valid claims and liabilities as a massive personal slush fund Trump can use to reward criminals, kill off clean energy projects, and do virtually anything else that serves his personal and political interests."
"The deals are deeply corrupt and illegal. When the accountability comes, and I promise you accountability is coming, everyone involved in them will answer for it," concluded the Congressman representing portions of Northern California.
