California challenges Trump administration’s wasteful, taxpayer-funded offshore wind buyout

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s illegal $120 million buyout of the Golden State Wind lease off the Central California coast. In June, California filed a Notice of Intent to sue, which provided a 60-day window for the Department of Interior and Golden State Wind to cancel the buyout.

The Golden State Wind project was expected to generate enough electricity to power about 1.1 million homes. It also would have delivered $24 million for workforce training and domestic supply chain development — investments California has already committed to — as part of an offshore wind industry projected to create roughly 8,000 high-quality jobs across the state.

“California will not stand by while the Trump administration pulls the plug on our offshore wind industry and saddles families with more expensive, polluting energy, said Michael Colvin, Director for the California Energy Program at Environmental Defense Fund.

“Our state invested in offshore wind because it can deliver the clean, reliable and homegrown power we need to meet rising energy demand. Californians did not sign up for these wasteful, taxpayer-funded payouts that mean higher bills, more pollution and less jobs.”

Thus far, the Trump administration has bought out three of the five offshore wind leases on the California coast — Golden State Wind, Canopy Offshore Wind Project and Even Keel Wind. Collectively, these projects represent 5.6 GW of total potential capacity and would power over 2 million homes with clean energy.

California also filed a notice of intent to sue to the U.S. Department of the Interior regarding its buyout of Even Keel Wind.