Dear NRDC Supporter,

The Trump administration kept losing in court — five times in a row — when they tried to unlawfully block offshore wind projects. So they came up with a new strategy: Giving your tax dollars to energy companies to walk away from wind projects and keeping us overreliant on dirty fossil fuels.

The administration recently handed foreign energy company TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to cancel two offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and the Carolinas. In exchange, TotalEnergies agreed to invest in oil and gas instead. Since then, the administration has agreed to pay out nearly another $1 billion to other energy companies to cancel two more offshore wind leases off the coasts of California and New York.

In total, the administration has now agreed to pay out close to $2 billion in public funds to cancel offshore wind leases that would have helped meet soaring energy demand with clean power and lower electricity costs at a time when household energy costs are skyrocketing.

Learn more about the Trump administration’s questionable deals to quit offshore wind and why NRDC is suing to expose the truth.

HOW WE GOT HERE
Federal judges ruled five times against the Trump administration's unlawful stop-work orders on fully permitted, under-construction offshore wind projects. The court also ruled that the administration's ban on new wind permits was unlawful. The administration lost, every single time.

Now, the administration is changing tactics. Instead of trying to win in court, they're giving energy companies massive taxpayer-funded checks to abandon offshore wind leases and to invest in fossil fuel projects.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
Let’s be clear about what Americans are losing: The four canceled leases would have resulted in projects that could have powered around 4 million homes with clean, affordable, reliable electricity. They would have created thousands of jobs. They could have helped bring down electricity costs.

Instead, the nearly $1 billion going to TotalEnergies will fund a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and additional fossil fuel production in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration has already repeated this scheme with two other energy companies — scrapping two more leases off the coasts of California and New York with enough offshore wind capacity to power millions of homes in lieu of new oil and gas investments.

This Big Oil bailout is a triple betrayal of American families: Wasting our tax dollars on a political vendetta against clean energy while fueling unnatural disasters and creating dirtier air and water that make us sicker. All of this makes life increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable — from higher energy bills to higher home insurance to higher medical expenses.

WHAT NRDC IS DOING ABOUT IT
NRDC sued Trump's Department of Interior to turn over the hidden details of the backroom deals with TotalEnergies and has submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act requests to demand more information. Americans deserve to know how their money is being spent.

We're also:

• Suing the IRS and the U.S. Department of Treasury over rules that unfairly and illegally discriminate against wind and solar projects.
• Suing the Department of Energy for failing to explain why it canceled previously approved clean energy funds.
• Supporting coalition partners in challenging other Trump administration policies that ban or delay wind and solar power projects.

The courts have made clear that the Trump administration can't simply decree offshore wind out of existence. Now we're going to make sure they can't buy their way around the law either. Thank you for fighting alongside us.

Sincerely,
NRDC