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Earlier this year, the Trump administration agreed to pay offshore wind developers nearly $4 billion to not build wind farms. Nine states sued on Sept. 22 to unwind some of the deals.
The lawsuits targeted Invenergy, which was to get $653 million for three leases, and Bluepoint Wind, which was to get $765 million for one. They were the latest in a string that began in March with TotalEnergies, which got $928 million back for two leases. California filed a separate suit over Invenergy's Morro Bay lease, tied to another $111 million.
Each deal worked the same way. Interior refunded what the company had paid for its lease, which it described as dollar for dollar, and the lease was canceled. In exchange, the company promised to invest the same amount in gas and other energy projects.
Interior called the deals settlements of legal claims, which let it pay out of a federal fund meant for that purpose. The states said there was nothing to settle. California said Invenergy had never sued, and the New York-led coalition said the deals weren't real compromises.
A gale from Washington
Other countries had been building offshore wind for decades with much less drama. Denmark put up the world's first offshore wind farm in 1991, 11 small turbines off the island of Lolland that together could power about 2,200 homes. By 2024, offshore wind alone produced 28 percent of the electricity generated in Denmark.
America's first came in 2016, five turbines off Block $SQ Island, Rhode Island, enough for about 17,000 homes. The next wave, approved under Biden, was meant to close the gap. Biden officials argued the country needed proofs of concept in the water. It arrived at a bad time.
Regulators began approving big projects a year into the pandemic, as supply chains seized up and interest rates climbed. Eleven won approval.
Trump moved on his first day back in office, freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind. Stop-work orders followed, first at Empire Wind off New York and then at Revolution Wind off Rhode Island.
The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed July 2025, cut short the credits wind depended on. In December, Interior halted all five farms under construction. Courts kept ruling against the orders, so Interior turned to buyouts.
Three big farms were finished anyway: South Fork off Long Island, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts and Revolution Wind off Rhode Island. Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind are still due to come online in 2027. Even so, BloombergNEF cut its forecast for U.S. offshore wind in 2035 from 39 gigawatts to six.
The breeze blows in
The Trump administration has a lot of arguments against offshore wind, and the strongest on is about money. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said such projects were "only viable when propped up by massive taxpayer subsidies."
Gas and wind are paid for in opposite ways. A gas plant was cheap to build and then paid for fuel for decades. A wind farm got its fuel free but spent nearly everything upfront, on turbines, foundations, cable and ships, so the interest on its loans showed up immediately in every megawatt hour.
A federal tax credit covered up to 30 percent of that bill. When Congress shortened the deadline to qualify, BloombergNEF's modeling put the price of power from a new project about a third higher, before tariffs.
Support like that was common in energy. Oil and gas drillers claimed depletion allowances and nuclear plants got a production tax credit, though analysts disputed which breaks counted as subsidies. What set offshore wind apart was the risk. The money was spent before the rules could change, so changing them midway hurt more than it would for a gas plant.
The administration also questioned reliability, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright arguing that power arriving at unpredictable times was not really dependable. But offshore wind has already provided examples of helping during times of stress. Vineyard Wind and South Fork performed well during Winter Storm Fern when the grid was strained trying to keep people warm. In July, offshore wind also helped displace oil-fired peaker plants during a heat wave.
Almost everything big in energy got more expensive to build. Data centers drove up demand and supply chains lagged, and BloombergNEF found the cost of a new U.S. gas plant rose 66 percent from 2023 to 2025.
The administration decided offshore wind was the one that cost too much. So far, it has spent almost $4 billion to make sure some of it never gets built.