Trump administration to pay $1.22B to wind farm developer to end project

Another offshore wind developer that had planned a large project off the New York coast has agreed to a $1.22 billion payment from the Trump administration to relinquish its offshore lease holdings.

German-based RWE U.S. Offshore had developed a plan with National Grid Ventures called Community Offshore Wind that would have supplied enough power for hundreds of thousands of New York homes, the companies said when the plan was first announced. RWE’s agreement with the Trump administration announced Thursday officially scuttles that plan and relinquishes RWE’s offshore lease holdings in Louisiana and California.

RWE had previously signaled plans to put the project on hold and New York State earlier this year withdrew the solicitation that had been considering Community and other projects. The plan had once called for some 3,000 megawatts of power from arrays 64 miles from the New York coast, with connections in Brooklyn and Long Island. 

“After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the U.S. for the foreseeable future,” RWE said in a release.

The agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior resolves RWE’s legal claims, the company said, while allowing it to “direct resources toward energy projects that can be advanced with certainty,” including power generation and fossil-fuel initiatives.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in post on X, said, "Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can't meet our country’s current demand." 

Burgum applauded RWE’s concurrent "voluntary investment" in U.S. natural gas turbines and a liquified natural gas terminal in Louisiana, among other projects.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a statement, called the deal "the latest example of Trump giving foreign companies taxpayer money to help his donors." Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted that Community Offshore Wind would have brought $3 billion in economic development and 700 jobs to the state. 

National Grid Ventures was not a party to the agreement, spokeswoman Molly Gilson said.

“National Grid Ventures [previously] agreed to sell its interest in Community Offshore Wind to RWE,” she said in an email, referring inquires to RWE. 

National Grid’s focus, Gilson said, “remains on operating and developing generation and transmission assets that support a safe, reliable and affordable energy system in New York.” As Newsday has reported, the company has outlined plans to repower its aging fleet of large, fossil-fuel power plants on Long Island. 

The Trump administration earlier this year reached an agreement with another New York offshore wind developer, TotalEnergies, to purchase its 84,000-acre lease holdings in the waters known as the New York Bight.

Following that $795 million settlement, seven states led by New York’s Attorney General filed suit against the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies seeking to strike it down.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.