California, Northeastern States Sue Trump Admin Over Offshore Wind Lease Buyouts

California and a coalition of eight Northeastern states separately have sued the Trump administration, seeking to block agreements that would redirect about $1.5 billion in investment away from offshore wind and toward oil and gas.

On Sept. 23, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced two lawsuits challenging agreements between the U.S. Department of the Interior and energy firms Bluepoint Wind and Invenergy.

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont joined New York in the lawsuits.

The states argue that the agreements unlawfully use taxpayer dollars to cancel offshore wind projects that could have supplied electricity to the Northeast and supported thousands of jobs.

California filed a separate lawsuit on Sept. 22 challenging another portion of the Invenergy deal, which involves an offshore wind lease off the state’s Central Coast.

At the center of the disputes is the Judgment Fund, which is used to pay court judgments and settlements against the federal government and has no spending cap.

Under an April agreement, a Bluepoint affiliate agreed to invest up to $765 million—the amount originally paid for the offshore wind lease—in a U.S. liquefied natural gas facility. The Interior Department agreed to cancel the wind lease and reimburse the company for an equivalent amount.

Bluepoint also agreed not to pursue new offshore wind developments in the United States.

A similar deal, inked in June with Invenergy, covers four offshore wind leases worth a combined $765 million. Invenergy agreed to cancel the leases and redirect an equivalent amount toward natural gas-fired power plants in several Midwestern states and geothermal projects in the western United States.

Three of those lease cancellations, worth about $653 million and located off the Northeast, are being challenged by the eight-state coalition.

The fourth, worth more than $111 million and located off California, is the subject of California’s lawsuit. California argues that the government cannot tap the Judgment Fund because the agreement did not resolve an existing or imminent lawsuit.

The Northeastern states make a similar argument, alleging that the administration created settlement agreements without an underlying legal dispute that would justify drawing money from the fund.

The Interior Department did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The department has defended these offshore lease buyouts as part of the Trump administration’s effort to redirect investment toward energy sources it says are more reliable and affordable.

One of the biggest of such deals came in August, with the Interior Department paying $1.22 billion for German energy company RWE to relinquish three offshore wind leases off New York, California, and Louisiana.

In exchange, RWE would redirect an equivalent amount toward other U.S. energy projects, including $900 million for a liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana and $300 million for natural gas turbines used at power plants.

“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,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement announcing the deal.

RWE is not a defendant in the lawsuits filed Tuesday, although California has separately signaled it would challenge that agreement as well.