US pays German energy firm US$1.2 billion to scrap offshore wind projects

USA / GERMANY: German energy company RWE has agreed to walk away from its offshore wind projects in the United States after reaching a US$1.2 billion settlement with the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior, according to the BBC. This was the latest in a series of deals the administration has struck to dismantle the US offshore wind pipeline as it pushes an aggressively pro-fossil fuel energy agenda.

RWE said it will relinquish its leases off the California and Louisiana coasts and in the New York Bight, and will reinvest the payout into conventional gas projects, including US$900 million toward a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana. The company said it had concluded there was “no path forward to permit these projects in the US for the foreseeable future,” as reported by the BBC.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the deal, saying Americans deserved an energy system built on “common sense” rather than “costly subsidies.” RWE said it plans to invest approximately €17 billion in the US over the next six years in conventional generation capacity.

The BBC reported that the RWE deal follows similar agreements struck earlier this year. In March 2026, French energy company TotalEnergies agreed to end its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a deal redirecting investment toward an LNG plant in Texas and conventional oil development in the Gulf of Mexico. Duke Energy reached a US$129 million agreement last month to terminate its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area.

Trump has been vocally hostile to wind power throughout his political career, the BBC noted, describing turbines as “ugly” and dangerous to wildlife. Days after returning to office, he said “we’re not going to do the wind thing,” and recently declared that “any country with windmills is a loser.”