Trump administration will pay $1B to block 2 offshore wind farms

MAINE MORNING STAR • March 24, 2026

The U.S. government will pay a French energy firm nearly $1 billion to cancel its plans to build a pair of wind farms off the East Coast, the Trump administration announced Monday in its latest move to stymie offshore wind. The French firm TotalEnergies will forfeit its leases for the projects, with the United States paying $928 million to reimburse what the company initially spent on the leases. Under the deal, TotalEnergies will reinvest that money into oil and gas projects.