TotalEnergies Offshore Wind Deal Reveals Taxpayer-Funded Buyout Dressed as Investment

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By EVWorld.com Si Editorial Team

Newly disclosed settlement documents obtained by Heatmap News show that the Trump administration's roughly $928 million deal to cancel two TotalEnergies offshore wind leases was far less consequential than officials originally claimed.

The Interior Department's announcement said TotalEnergies would "redirect" the reimbursement into new U.S. oil and gas development. But the actual terms allowed the company to count investments it was already making -- including spending on the Rio Grande LNG export terminal, which Total had approved months earlier. The full $928 million was exhausted in under 21 weeks.

The legal basis is equally problematic. The government cited "classified national security concerns" from the Department of Defense -- the same rationale used to pause five other offshore wind projects. Federal judges rapidly overturned every one of those stop-work orders, finding the security claims unconvincing. Former BOEM director Elizabeth Klein characterized the deal as an admission that the government expected to lose in court and chose to pay rather than litigate.

The governing statute requires a hearing before lease cancellation can occur on national security or environmental grounds. No hearing took place. The $928 million was drawn from the DOJ Judgment Fund -- a reserve for settling actual or imminent litigation -- despite TotalEnergies having filed no lawsuit. Critics, including the NRDC, describe the arrangement as a sweetheart deal funneling public money to a foreign oil company while raising electricity costs for American ratepayers.

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