Trump administration has spent nearly $4B canceling offshore wind leases

The Trump administration is paying another $1.2 billion to cancel an offshore wind lease, this time to German utility RWE. The company said in an announcement that the wind farms would have been built off the coasts of California, Louisiana, and New York. Instead, RWE will spend $900 million to buy a small stake in a Louisiana liquid natural gas export terminal.

The New York wind farm alone would have generated more than 3 gigawatts, according to Heatmap News. The remaining $300 million of the payout will go toward buying natural gas turbines to power 15 peaking power plants around the country. Peaking power plants are among the most expensive and most polluting natural gas power plants to operate, and it’s unclear when those 15 plants will be completed — there’s currently a backlog for new turbines stretching into the early 2030s.

RWE isn’t backing off its offshore wind investments elsewhere, though: the company said it bought 6.9 gigawatts of capacity in the UK’s recent auction.

The Trump administration has now paid $3.93 billion for the 12 offshore wind leases it has coaxed developers into abandoning.

Why it matters

Each canceled lease converts wind capacity RWE could have connected to the grid within a few years into gas turbines with a construction backlog running into the 2030s — a trade that pushes new power supply further out even as US electricity demand keeps climbing.