The Trump administration announced it will pay nearly $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies in exchange for the company abandoning plans to build offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean and instead pursue fossil fuel projects in the US.
Just to be clear, this money was already spent by the previous administration on federal leases that were going to be used to build these offshore farms. The government will now be reimbursing the company the money it spent on those leases. Not quite just paying the company to not do something like the headline makes it seem. But that’s now $1 billion that could certainly be put to better use elsewhere that will be wasted paying this company back.
It’s also embarrassingly short sided for a myriad of reasons but that doesn’t matter anymore. We’re great again!
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/23/climate/trump-totalenergies-offshore-wind-cancellation
Just to be clear, this money was already spent by the previous administration on federal leases that were going to be used to build these offshore farms. The government will now be reimbursing the company the money it spent on those leases. Not quite just paying the company to not do something like the headline makes it seem. But that’s now $1 billion that could certainly be put to better use elsewhere that will be wasted paying this company back.
It’s also embarrassingly short sided for a myriad of reasons but that doesn’t matter anymore. We’re great again!