Trump’s US$1Bn offer to stop offshore windfarm ‘threatens affordable power’

The report comes weeks after a series of court rulings striking down the Trump administration’s unlawful efforts to block such projects from being developed. 

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is prepared to pay TotalEnergies nearly US$1Bn to relinquish two offshore wind leases for the Attentive Energy project offshore New York and the Carolina Long Bay project offshore North Carolina.

The newspaper said that the payment would be made if TotalEnergies permanently waives its rights to develop the windfarms.

Responding, Environmental Defense Fund director and lead counsel Ted Kelly said, “If these proposed deals are real, they are an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most.

“As fossil fuel prices swing wildly from global shocks and extreme weather, the answer is obvious. We should be building more homegrown clean energy with stable costs. 

“East Coast states are building offshore wind because it boosts affordable electricity supply on the grid, especially during cold snaps, when natural gas prices are sky-high,” said Mr Kelly. 

“Revolution Wind, one of the offshore projects that was just completed, will reduce New England families’ electricity bills by roughly half a billion dollars per year. 

“By obstructing clean energy projects, while mandating the use of expensive, barely-working coal plants and giving out ‘concierge, white glove service’ to fossil fuel projects, this administration continues to create a self-inflicted rate hike.”