US states sue Trump Administration and TotalEnergies for offshore wind cancellation

Seven U.S. States led by New York filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday for?cancelling an offshore wind lease near New York's coast.

The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., challenges the March 23 decision of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior to cancel the lease of a subsidiary company of France's TotalEnergies, to "reimburse", $795 million, to the company, to extract a promise from the company to not develop new offshore projects in the United States.

The agreement was a new approach in the administration’s?widespread effort to stop development of U.S. off-shore wind projects that President Donald Trump said he found ugly and expensive.

New Jersey, Connecticut Maine, Massachusetts Rhode Island, and Vermont are among the states that have filed suit.

This pay-not to play scheme, which pressures a foreign company into forgoing planned offshore wind project in America to favor gas and oil drilling, is an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability meet our energy requirements, create good job and help'secure American energy independence whilst reducing emissions, said New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a press release.

TotalEnergies, the Interior Department and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to our requests for comments.

(source: Reuters)