France

Trump Admin Pays $928M to Cancel TotalEnergies Wind Leases

Is paying TotalEnergies $1B to abandon offshore wind a reckless waste or a smart pivot to energy dominance?

Published 3 hours ago

Trump Admin Pays $928M to Cancel TotalEnergies Wind Leases

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Above: Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of TotalEnergies SE, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in Houston on March 23. Image credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Republican narrative

Offshore wind is a taxpayer-funded scam forcing Americans to pay billions for weather-dependent power. The TotalEnergies deal redirects capital into reliable LNG and domestic oil production — real energy that lowers monthly bills and strengthens national security. Swapping costly, subsidy-dependent wind leases for base-load natural gas is exactly the kind of Energy Dominance win hardworking Americans deserve.

Trump U.S. Department of the Interior

Doug Burgum on X

Democratic narrative

Burning nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay a French company to abandon clean energy is reckless and indefensible. Federal courts already blocked Trump's anti-wind executive orders as unlawful, yet the administration found a backdoor to gut offshore wind anyway. Paying TotalEnergies to walk away kills American jobs and reliable power at the exact moment energy prices are spiking.

The Morning Call

Chris Van Hollen on X