US government pays $900 million to exit wind projects

The US government has bought out two energy companies from offshore wind leases for a large sum. According to the Interior Department, agreements have been reached with the energy companies Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind. These have agreed to withdraw from wind projects currently under development. Instead, both are to invest in the expansion of fossil energy infrastructure.

This is a step away “from volatile, costly energy sources towards proven conventional solutions,” writes the Interior Department in its statement. The US government is paying nearly 900 million for this: Bluepoint Wind receives 765 million US dollars, Golden State Wind 120 million US dollars.

In the spring, the US government already lured the French energy company TotalEnergies into a similar deal: For withdrawing from two offshore wind farm projects and investing in fossil energy, TotalEnergies received just under a billion US dollars.

Taxpayer money from hardworking Americans

Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind were sold a product with the wind energy projects in 2022, “which was only viable when propped up by massive taxpayer subsidies,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Now, “hardworking Americans are no longer footing the bill for expensive, unreliable, intermittent energy projects.” Instead, the US government is investing taxpayer money in the expansion of fossil energy infrastructure.

The current US administration under President Donald Trump is strongly committed to fossil fuels. At the end of last year, it halted construction on five large offshore wind farms on the East Coast. The reason given was that they endangered national security. The affected companies and US states sued against this and won in all cases. In the USA too, the share of renewable energies is growing.

(wpl)