{"id":888288,"date":"2026-06-24T00:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/888288\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:35:18","slug":"california-to-sue-trump-administration-for-ending-states-wind-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/888288\/","title":{"rendered":"California to sue Trump administration for ending state’s wind project"},"content":{"rendered":"

California intends to sue the Trump administration over its deal to end an offshore wind project<\/a> proposed off the state\u2019s central coast.<\/p>\n

State officials said they are combating the administration\u2019s attacks on their offshore wind industry by sending a notice of their intention to sue to the Department of the Interior on Tuesday. Tuesday\u2019s action is focused on the administration buying back the lease for Golden State Wind, a floating offshore wind project off California\u2019s central coast.<\/p>\n

California has made a major commitment to offshore wind because of its potential to generate vast amounts of clean electricity from strong, consistent winds off its coast. Its strategy calls for the state to develop 25 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2045, enough to power roughly 25 million homes and provide about 13% of the state\u2019s electricity supply. <\/p>\n

These energy and climate goals are now in jeopardy, and that\u2019s why California will fight vigorously, said California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild. He called the administration\u2019s strategy of buying back offshore wind leases \u201ca strategic mistake of colossal proportions\u201d that is especially stunning at a time when fossil fuel prices have been spiking<\/a> due to the Iran war. <\/p>\n

\u201cCountries that thrive around the world are those that lean into innovation, into the energy sources of the future,\u201d he said in an interview on Tuesday. \u201cAnd so to turn away from this, and turn back the clock, and really engage in what I consider to be a war on innovation, is really ill-considered. And I think it\u2019s a decision that\u2019s not just bad for California, it\u2019s bad for the nation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump administration favors fossil fuels over wind <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has said he\u2019s boosting fossil fuels<\/a> to unleash America\u2019s affordable and reliable energy, and he frequently talks about his hatred of wind power<\/a>. The Interior Department started buying back offshore wind leases after federal courts thwarted Trump\u2019s efforts<\/a> to stop offshore wind development<\/a> through executive action. <\/p>\n

In exchange for reimbursements of lease fees, companies are investing in fossil fuel projects and geothermal energy. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said last week that \u201cunder President Trump, companies are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs.\u201d <\/p>\n

A total of five federal leases off California\u2019s coastline have been awarded to energy developers. Two are being canceled through deals with the Interior Department: Golden State Wind and another floating project off California\u2019s central coast by Chicago-based Invenergy. The state says it also issued an administrative investigative subpoena on Tuesday to Invenergy, which accepted a $765 million deal last week to terminate its offshore wind leases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that the state won\u2019t stand idly by as the Trump administration \u201cillegally strikes deals to kill offshore wind projects and replace them with more windfalls for his fossil fuel friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight offshore wind projects have been stopped so far <\/p>\n

The total amount spent on these agreements is nearly $2.6 billion. Under the first deal announced in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting nearly $1 billion<\/a> \u2014 essentially a refund of its two offshore wind leases \u2014 if it invests the money in fossil fuels instead. Those leases were off the coasts of North Carolina and New York. New York is leading a lawsuit<\/a> challenging the TotalEnergies agreement and Democrats in Congress are investigating<\/a> it. <\/p>\n

Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind<\/a> agreed in April to end their leases. Bluepoint Wind was an offshore wind farm in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York.<\/p>\n

Golden State Wind is a joint venture by Ocean Winds and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Under its agreement, Golden State Wind can recover about $120 million in lease fees after the same amount is invested in oil and gas assets, infrastructure or projects along the Gulf Coast, Interior said. Michael Brown, CEO of Ocean Winds North America, said in April that the deal provided \u201cclarity\u201d for the company and its investors.<\/p>\n

Hochschild and Bonta say that Interior illegally reallocated federal taxpayer dollars to pay Golden State Wind to abandon its offshore wind energy lease and invest an equal amount in out-of-state fossil fuel projects, which will do nothing to support California\u2019s energy economy. <\/p>\n

They also say California has invested more than $100 million over the past decade to ready its ports, transmission systems and industries to support offshore wind generation, and those investments may be lost if the Trump administration successfully halts offshore wind development. <\/p>\n

California plans to sue in 60 days if the situation isn\u2019t rectified.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California intends to sue the Trump administration over its deal to end an offshore wind project proposed off…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":888289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,276,10106,360220,7838,69,98171,10102,57,116184,80,13211,13210,104312,67,370,132,68,93],"class_list":["post-888288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-california","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-david-hochschild","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-burgum","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-michael-brown","tag-politics","tag-rob-bonta","tag-trump-lawsuits","tag-u-s-department-of-the-interior","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116802284725842828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}