Another offshore wind developer exits California in $1.22-billion deal with Trump administration

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Set us as preferred Another offshore wind company has entered into an agreement with the Trump administration to walk away from projects along the coast of the United States, including one in California.German energy giant RWE said Thursday it reached a $1.22-billion deal with the U.S.

Interior Department to abandon wind leases off New York, Louisiana and Northern California near Humboldt, further challenging the Golden State’s clean energy ambitions.The deal is the fifth and largest the administration has reached this year in an unprecedented effort to steer companies away from offshore wind and into fossil fuel projects.

President Trump has described offshore wind as expensive, unsightly and unreliable.“Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can’t meet our country’s current demand,” said Interior Secretary Doug Bergum in a post on X welcoming the agreement with RWE.

Previous agreements with companies TotalEnergies, Ocean Winds, Invenergy and Duke Energy totaled about $2.7 billion for the cancellation of at least a dozen federal wind leases.All of the companies agreed to invest instead in U.S.

fossil fuel projects.Climate & Environment In the second such highly unusual move, the Trump administration is paying to make wind power go awayRWE is one of the world’s leading offshore wind developers, with 22 offshore wind farms currently in operation or or under construction around the world.

But the company largely halted its work in the U.S.last year amid Trump’s efforts to thwart wind development, which included canceling federal funding and ordering halts to wind projects nearing completion along the East Coast.

RWE’s California lease area, located about 30 miles off the coast of Humboldt, was awarded under the Biden administra...