A French energy company is halting an offshore wind project off the North Carolina coast as a result of a settlement this week with the Trump administration.
TotalEnergies and the U.S. Dept. of the Interior signed an agreement Monday to end two offshore wind leases — one in North Carolina and one in New York.
The Carolina Long Bay project, located approximately 22 miles south of Bald Head Island, would’ve generated more than one gigawatt of power from a 86 square nautical mile wind farm, according to its website. That’s enough energy to power about 300,000 homes.
TotalEnergies paid $160 million in 2022 to lease the site from the federal government, The New York Times reported.
Under the settlement, TotalEnergies will be reimbursed for the nearly $1 billion it paid for the two leases, and will redirect that money into oil and natural gas development in Texas and surrounding areas. The company has also agreed not to pursue further offshore wind projects in the U.S.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the deal a win for the Trump administration: “Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers.”
President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of offshore wind for many years.
“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this settlement agreement with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy,” TotalEnergies CEO and Chairman Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement. “These investments will contribute to supplying Europe with much-needed LNG from the U.S. and provide gas for U.S. data center development.”
The company was set to install wind turbines off the North Carolina coast by 2031.
“This is a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country,” Gov. Josh Stein said on social media.
A spokesperson for the Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management told NC Newsline the agency is dedicated to managing offshore energy resources in accordance with federal law, in a way that pushes the administration’s energy priorities.
But environmentalists are decrying the deal. Gas prices and energy costs have been rising in recent weeks due to the war in Iran, and advocates say this isn’t the time to move away from clean energy.
“While North Carolinians face skyrocketing energy bills, President Trump is continuing to block the cheapest and quickest forms of energy production: solar and wind,” Dan Crawford, senior director of public affairs for the N.C. League of Conservation Voters, told NC Newsline in a statement.
Munashe Magarira, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said renewable energy production helps countries to protect themselves from fossil fuel price spikes as a result of global conflict.
Spain, for example, relies on renewable energy sources to generate more than half of its power. With frequent sunny skies and strong winds in the coastal country, Spaniards are seeing lower electricity prices than their neighbors in other parts of Europe.
The decision to pivot away from renewables “comes at a terrible time for North Carolina and for the United States generally,” Magarira said.
“Offshore wind requires a capital investment upfront, but it’s a fuel-free resource,” Magarira told NC Newsline. “Once you’ve paid for it… the operating and maintenance costs are quite low.”
Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton said the utility incorporates a variety of energy sources in order to deliver low prices to customers.
Large offshore wind projects, like Carolina Long Bay, require substantial capital investments and extensive development timelines, he said.
“It’s reasonable that policy makers question the cost-exposure of such projects to customers,” Norton told NC Newsline in a statement.
The settlement makes it less likely that the East Coast will become a regional hub for offshore wind, according to Karly Brownfield, Central Atlantic senior program manager at the Southeastern Wind Coalition.
She pointed out that the loss of the Carolina Long Bay project also removes potential economic development opportunities associated with the supply chain, as well as building out the offshore wind industry in North Carolina.
“All that potential investment is now a lost opportunity,” Brownfield said.
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