Trump’s Vendetta Against Wind Energy Meets Legal Opposition

The Attorneys General of New York and six other states have sued the Trump Administration over its recent deal to buy out offshore wind project leases despite the benefits of wind power for customers and economies. 

Announced in March, the Trump Administration is paying French company (TotalEnergies) $1 billion to cancel its leases for offshore wind projects in New York and North Carolina to instead invest the money in fossil fuel projects. State attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York in challenging the cancellation of the lease off New York, saying it will harm their states’ economies, energy grids, and climate goals. 

“This administration cooked up a sham deal to pay a foreign energy company hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to abandon offshore wind and invest in oil and gas instead,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy.”

New York’s Case Could Lead the Way

The lawsuit could provide a ‘​roadmap’ for other states looking to fight the Trump administration’s lease-cancellation deals, said Tony Irish, a former Interior attorney who now works for the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “I’ve been hoping for this day, and I’m glad that it’s here,” he said, adding that the New York–led lawsuit ​“brings a phenomenal array of valid claims” against the agreement.  

NCLCV condemned the deal’s impact on North Carolina when it was announced and continues to push back against threats to wind power in our state.