Trump administration announces deal with TotalEnergies to redirect investment in wind to oil and gas instead
As a fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran drives up global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration has announced it will pay French energy major TotalEnergies $1bn to kill plans to construct wind farms off the US east coast.
The deal is the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry, which has faced repeated disruptions to multi-billion-dollar projects under Donald Trump.
Trump has said he finds wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient, and his administration has moved to increase domestic fossil fuel production.
In the deal announced Monday, TotalEnergies will give up two offshore leases it had purchased off New York and North Carolina. Trump’s Department of the Interior will reimburse the company the $928m it paid for the leases under Joe Biden.
