French energy developer TotalEnergies confirmed on March 23 that it will accept an offer from the Trump administration to scrap plans to build offshore wind projects on long-term lease sites in New York and North Carolina in exchange for a $928 million reward from the Trump administration to cover development costs.
TotalEnergies said it reached a “settlement” with the US Department of the Interior that will cancel its $795 million lease for the company’s proposed 3 GW Attentive Energy offshore project in the New York Bight ocean area between New York and New Jersey, and the $130 million Carolina Long Bay project lease, both awarded in auctions held by the administration Biden2022.
The offer had been reported by The New York Times last week.
The New York lease sale generated $4.37 billion in winning bids for six sites totaling 488,000 acres. The department called it “the highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in U.S. history, including oil and gas leases.” TotalEnergies subsequently sold a 44% stake in Attentive Energy to Corio Generation and electricity producer Rise Light & Power for $420 million.
The projects were supposed to start generating power in the early 2030s, but had been halted in November 2024 by TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné following the election of Donald Trump. The CEO said at the time that the projects could be built under a new president.
In his statement, however, reversing course, Pouyanné said the company has “decided to forego offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of lease fees,” claiming that “other technologies are available to meet the growing demand for electricity in the United States in a more affordable way.”
According to the agreement, TotalEnergies will “invest an equal amount” to develop natural gas export capacity and power production in the United States, including financing the construction of its Rio Grande LNG export plant in Brownsville, Texas, and other undisclosed oil and gas projects. “The Texas export terminal aims to supply Europe with much-needed LNG to supply gas to data centers,” Pouyanné said, saying the investment is “a more efficient use of capital” in the US. But the company’s investment shift does not affect its commitment to wind power in other countries, he told media on March 23 at the S&P CeraWeek energy conference in Houston.
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The purchase, a new administration strategy against offshore wind development, comes after stop-work orders against five major East Coast projects were lifted in four consecutive weeks in late December as “arbitrary and capricious” by federal court judges.
“After failing to shut down offshore wind through strong-arm tactics and court losses, the administration is spending $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to force developers out of the market, wrapped in a false narrative about affordability, reliability and national security,” said the US offshore wind advocacy group Oceantic Network. “Winter Storm Fern Shows How Offshore Wind Helped Keep the Lights On and Rates Down for Millions in the Northeast.”
According to the group, the administration’s purchase is “political theater intended to hide the fact that offshore wind capacity is being pulled from the pipeline as energy prices are soaring, even as other offshore wind projects continue to provide reliable and affordable power to the grid.” He added that “the long-term trajectory of offshore wind remains secure in the US as states continue to make the energy source a critical part of their energy mix.”
The administration did not disclose further information on whether other wind leaseholders have been offered similar buyouts.
