(ICN) $1 BILLION DEAL TO ABANDON OFFSHORE WIND

The Department of the Interior recently announced an agreement to pay the multinational company TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion to abandon its offshore wind leases and instead invest in fossil fuel production in the U.S.

The federal government said it will reimburse TotalEnergies for money spent on U.S. oil, natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, up to the cost of the leases. The projects were to be located off the coasts of New York and North Carolina.

The payments are the latest move in the Trump administration’s campaign to stifle the offshore wind industry, months after a federal judge reversed its attempt to kill projects along the East Coast.

Now, several of those major offshore wind projects are coming online, including Revolution Wind in New England and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.

Katharine Kollins is the president of the advocacy group Southeastern Wind Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for wind energy across Southern states. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

JENNI DOERING: What was your reaction when you heard the news of this $1 billion payment?

KATHARINE KOLLINS: I was surprised and disappointed. This is obviously another blow to offshore wind. We’ve seen a number of them throughout the current administration, and it’s really a dual blow to the taxpayer. Because you’ve got consumers both paying TotalEnergies back for nearly a billion dollars of a lease payment, and then higher long-term costs of a less-diverse and less-efficient energy mix.

DOERING: Supporters of the Trump administration deal with TotalEnergies say that this $1 billion is merely a refund on money that the company has paid the government, and so taxpayers are breaking even. What’s your response to that argument?

KOLLINS: My response to the argument is that these funds were already paid and accounted for, and I don’t think that those same folks would be supportive of the administration refunding the tax dollars that we all paid last year. Just because we’ve already paid something doesn’t mean that it is acceptable to then refund it a year later, when those funds were already allocated by the Treasury Department.

DOERING: The courts overturned the Trump administration’s order to shut down offshore wind projects on the grounds of national security. What do you make of this new strategy to pay companies like TotalEnergies to just give up their leases?

KOLLINS: It is a continuation of the president’s strategy to do whatever he can to cripple this industry. I think in the long run, it’s futile, because offshore wind is a much-needed energy generation source, especially on the East Coast, and it’s a phenomenal economic development tool. The fundamentals of offshore wind make sense for the U.S., but in the short term, he has made developing offshore wind very difficult and driven a lot of investors away from the U.S., away from offshore wind and toward other investments.

DOERING: What’s the economic impact of canceling offshore wind farms? Who wins and who loses? More of this article (Inside Climate News) - link - more like this (wind) - link - more like this (New York) - link - more like this (TotalEnergies) - link