Wind turbines cover the Tehachapi Mountain Range in Tehachapi, Calif. The Trump administration will pay a German company more than $2 billion to abandon offshore wind farm projects in a deal announced Thursday. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of the Interior will pay a German company $1.22 billion to abandon wind power projects, give up offshore wind leases and redirect money toward fossil fuels.
The deal with RWE marks the fifth deal of its kind by the Interior Department, which is offering payouts for businesses to stop renewable clean energy projects. It marks almost $4 billion in taxpayer money that the department has spent to kill offshore wind projects, The Guardian reported.
RWE announced the deal Thursday, saying it will give up leases off the coasts of New York, California and Louisiana that it had acquired "with a long-term commitment to develop offshore wind capacity."
"After careful consideration, it was determined that there was no path forward to permit these projects in the United States for the foreseeable future," the company said in a release.
