Trump Officials in Talks With Wind Developers to Buy Back Leases

Article content

(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration is talking with some offshore wind developers about buying back the leases they purchased from the federal government years ago to develop energy projects along the US coast. 

Article content

The potential reimbursements — meant to cover the original lease purchase price — are seen as the latest push by the administration to thwart a nascent US offshore wind industry that’s anathema to President Donald Trump. He has long criticized wind farms as ugly, bird-killing monstrosities and vowed no new wind turbines will be installed in the country under his watch. 

Article content

Article content

Article content

Companies that agree to relinquish the leases would forfeit all rights to continue developing offshore wind farms on the tracts, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because private discussions are ongoing. In some cases, the returned payments could be earmarked for US oil, gas and coal projects instead, the people said. 

Article content

Article content

The conversations are coming at the request of the developers themselves, generally those that are in early stages of the project-development process, said one of the people.

Article content

Interior Department representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Stay tuned!” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers. The Financial Times earlier reported that talks were being conducted.

Article content

The model for the discussions is a $1 billion settlement brokered between the government and TotalEnergies SE that was announced earlier this week. Under that agreement, Total is recovering the fees it paid for two leases purchased in 2022 near North Carolina and New York. The company has also pledged to invest an equal amount in developing US gas and power projects. 

Article content

Article content

The buyback approach has been used before to extricate the US government from leases, particularly after litigation. After former President George W. Bush’s Interior Department sold shale oil leases in Utah in 2008, the auction was subsequently challenged in court. Months later, the agency under former President Barack Obama ordered the withdrawal of those leases, with leaseholders refunded the bids they’d paid for the territory.

Article content

Current talks have involved a number of developers with existing wind leases on the US outer continental shelf, people familiar with the matter said. Potential deals could be part of legal settlements to resolve litigation over Interior Department moves against some projects, they said.

Article content

The prospect of lease relinquishment may be more attractive to developers with recently acquired leases — those that haven’t done significant work to design, permit or build the projects. Significant work is unlikely to proceed under Trump, who issued an order halting permitting of offshore wind projects and ruled out the sale of new leases within hours of taking office last year. 

Article content

The calculus is likely to be much different for the handful of developers that are in the final stages of construction and have invested billions to build the offshore wind farms. Initial leases have generally cost a fraction of that.

Article content

Under Trump, the Interior Department has moved on multiple fronts to thwart the development of offshore wind farms, using broad orders and stop-work decrees to shut down permitting, construction and other activities under leases sold earlier. Developers and affected states have mounted a series of so far mostly successful lawsuits challenging the moves.

Article content