March 30, 2026 — This week, the Trump administration announced it had struck an unusual deal. The U.S. government will pay TotalEnergies, a French power generation company, $928 million to scuttle its plans to build two wind farms off the coasts of New Jersey and North Carolina. Together, the projects could have powered some 1.7 million homes.
The deal represents a new wrinkle in President Donald Trump’s campaign to jettison America’s nascent offshore wind industry, which many environmentalists see as key to reducing the country’s carbon footprint. Mr. Trump has criticized wind power as ineffective and costly, and his administration has tried to curtail wind infrastructure development.
“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in a news release announcing the deal on Monday.