New lawsuits launched to challenge Trump’s offshore wind deals

In the latest in a flurry of lawsuits about the buyouts, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission (CEC) filed a lawsuit against the administration’s agreement to buy back Invenergy’s offshore wind energy lease in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area.

Separately, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced that New York is leading a coalition of eight attorneys general in suing the administration over its cancellation of Invenergy’s offshore wind lease in the New York Bight and Gulf of Maine and Bluepoint Wind off Massachusetts. Joining Attorney General James in filing both lawsuits are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Attorney General Bonta and the CEC’s lawsuit against the Trump administration and Invenergy argues that the Department of Interior’s (DOI’s) buyout deal with Invenergy violates the Constitution and numerous federal laws, including the Administrative Procedure Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Judgment Fund Act, and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which is intended to give California a say in the offshore wind leasing programme.

“At a time when we need more reliable, clean energy, President Trump is trying to send US$111M to his fossil fuel industry friends and wants taxpayers and working families to cover the tab,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars will damage the offshore wind industry and create unnecessary obstacles to clean and reliable energy powering our homes and economies.”

Governor Hochul and Attorney General Letitia are leading seven other attorneys general in suing to block two deals by the Trump administration that they believe are illegal, that would hand energy companies US$1.4Bn in taxpayer dollars in exchange for cancelling four offshore wind projects.

In the lawsuits, one challenging the deal with Bluepoint Wind and the other challenging one with Invenergy, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the deals unlawfully misuse taxpayer dollars and sabotage states’ ability to meet growing energy demands. The lawsuits ask the court to stop the deals.

“The Trump administration’s unlawful pay-to-not-play scheme to pressure companies to forego planned offshore wind projects in America is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability to meet our energy needs, reduce emissions, create good paying jobs, and help secure American energy independence,” said Governor Hochul. “Working with Attorney General James and the seven other AGs who filed this lawsuit, we will continue to fight back against the war against clean energy being waged by this President and his Republican allies.”

The first lawsuit challenges the US Department of the Interior’s deal with Bluepoint Wind, which cancelled the company’s lease off the coast of New York and, in exchange, paid Bluepoint US$765M from the Judgment Fund, a taxpayer-funded account reserved for legitimate legal settlements. In the second lawsuit, the attorneys general are challenging DOI’s deal with Invenergy, which cancelled three offshore wind leases, including one off the coast of New York, and paid the company US$653M from the same fund.

The lawsuits assert that the administration is unlawfully using taxpayer dollars to advance the president’s policy preference for oil and gas development. The agreements do not resolve any actual or imminent litigation, meaning the administration has no legal basis to pay these companies hundreds of millions of dollars from the Judgment Fund, which Congress established solely to pay legitimate legal claims against the government.

Governor Hochul, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the deals violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Judgment Fund Act and other federal spending laws. They are asking the courts to declare the agreements unlawful, void the lease cancellations, and block the administration from taking any further action to carry out the deals.

Responding, Oceantic Network president and chief executive Liz Burdock said, “When a 1-GW offshore wind project is cancelled, we don’t just lose a project, we lose an estimated US$8.5Bn to US$9.5Bn in US economic output. That means roughly 3,350 construction jobs disappear across the country, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in wages that would have gone to American workers and their families. And the impact doesn’t stop at the project site. It reaches businesses, workers, and communities throughout a nationwide supply chain. These are real economic losses, being felt by American workers when the cost of living is soaring. Oceantic commends California, New York and other East Coast states for standing up once again to challenge actions that threaten jobs, investment, and the nation’s ability to meet growing electricity demand with a proven, affordable, and reliable energy source.”