Trump Administration Announces $1B Deal to Stop Offshore Wind, Threatening Affordable Power at Critical Moment

(WASHINGTON – March 23, 2026) Today, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum announced that the Trump administration will pay an energy developer almost $1 billion in taxpayer funds to cancel the federal leases for two offshore wind projects along the East Coast. This news comes just weeks after a series of court rulings striking down the Trump administration’s unlawful efforts to block such projects from being developed. 

“This deal is an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most,” said Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel, U.S. Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund.

“As fossil fuel prices swing wildly from global shocks and extreme weather, the answer is obvious: We should be building more homegrown clean energy with stable costs. East Coast states are building offshore wind because it boosts affordable electricity supply on the grid, especially during cold snaps, when natural gas prices are sky-high. Revolution Wind, one of the offshore projects that was just completed, will lower New England families’ electricity bills by roughly half a billion dollars per year. 

“By obstructing clean energy projects, while mandating the use of expensive, barely-working coal plants and giving out ‘concierge, white glove service’ to fossil fuel projects, this administration continues to create a self-inflicted rate hike.”