The Trump administration said Wednesday it will buy back U.S. offshore wind leases tied to four additional projects, pushing total spending on the agreements to nearly $2.6 billion.
Chicago-based Invenergy has agreed to give up four offshore wind leases that were still in the earliest stages of development in exchange for $765 million in reimbursed lease payments. The company had already scrapped the largest of the four projects — Leading Light Wind off the coast of New Jersey — in November. The remaining leases are located off Maine and California. Invenergy said it plans to redirect the funds into natural gas and geothermal projects that can be developed more quickly.
Through the lease buybacks, the Republican administration is effectively halting offshore wind developments that President Donald Trump opposes while steering investment toward fossil fuel projects he favors. The strategy emerged after federal courts blocked Trump’s attempts to curb offshore wind expansion through executive action. Trump has repeatedly criticized wind energy, often describing turbines as unattractive.
“Under President Trump, companies are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “We applaud Invenergy for recognizing the importance of baseload power and investing in energy solutions that deliver real benefits to American consumers.”
Eight offshore wind projects have now been stopped.
In the first agreement, announced in March, French energy company TotalEnergies was offered nearly $1 billion — effectively a refund for two offshore wind leases — if it reinvested the money in fossil fuel development. Those leases were located off North Carolina and New York. New York is leading a lawsuit challenging that deal, while Democrats in Congress have opened an investigation into it.
Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind agreed in April to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided they invest equally in fossil fuels. California is investigating the deal that ended Golden State Wind, a floating offshore wind farm proposed off the state’s central coast. Bluepoint Wind was an offshore wind farm in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.
Invenergy is North America’s largest privately held independent power producer. It has four offshore leases: a large lease area for Leading Light Wind, which would have used traditional turbines that affix to the seafloor; two leases for projects with floating turbines in the Gulf of Maine; and a lease for a floating project off California’s central coast.
Invenergy says it’s focused on energy projects that can move forward today
For Invenergy, the deal offered a way to move forward with energy projects that could bring power to the grid more quickly for its customers than the dormant offshore wind leases. Trump has erected roadblocks for permitting wind energy, while trying to speed up fossil fuel development.
The company left the door open to reentering the offshore wind industry in the future. Daniel Runyan, senior vice president for development at Invenergy, said in a statement that at a time of unprecedented energy demand, they “will deploy additional capital into projects that can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline and meet customer demand while continuing to evaluate opportunities as market conditions evolve.”
Leading Light Wind was targeted for as much as 2.4 gigawatts to power more than 1 million homes. Invenergy told the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in November it was canceling Leading Light Wind because of challenges with the supply chain, equipment and vendors, and changing regulatory requirements.
The floating projects were so early in development that Invenergy hadn’t yet calculated how much power those sites could provide.
Invenergy, a major player in the natural gas sector, has 14 operational natural gas facilities. It’s expanding into geothermal energy, with 45 leases totaling 144,000 acres in Nevada, Idaho, California, Utah and New Mexico. Invenergy plans to use the $765 million from the agreement for natural gas facilities in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, and geothermal development in the West. It was not refunded interest paid on the offshore wind lease payments or incremental development costs.
Invenergy has a large portfolio of projects other than offshore wind that produce electricity without warming the planet. That includes about 125 land-based wind farms operating and in construction, more than 60 solar and nearly 30 battery storage projects developed, and many more that it’s actively planning and building.
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