U.S. Offshore Wind Buyouts Hit $4 Billion With RWE's $1.22 Billion Settlement
The Trump administration's serial payouts to cancel offshore wind leases have reached roughly $4 billion, with an estimated $2 billion in remaining U.S. leases still unresolved.
The Trump administration agreed to pay German utility RWE AG $1.22 billion to cancel its U.S. offshore wind projects, a deal announced on Thursday (2026-08-06) that pushed total federal settlements to abandon the sector to roughly $4 billion in 2026, Rigzone reported.8
That total accumulated through four deals spread over several months. In March 2026, Interior agreed to pay French supermajor TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion — specifically, $795 million in lease fee reimbursements — to exit two leases covering the New York Bight and Carolina Long Bay areas it had secured in 2022, Energy Voice reported. The company committed to redirect those funds toward fossil fuel investments in the United States. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement that "considering the development of offshore wind projects isn't in the country's interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States."8,5,4
The capacity written off under the TotalEnergies deal alone was substantial. Those two leases would have generated more than 4 gigawatts of electricity, sufficient to power around 1.3 million homes, oilprice.com reported. TotalEnergies' Attentive Energy project near New York was planned at nearly 3 gigawatts across two phases of roughly 1.4 gigawatts each, with the first phase tied to existing infrastructure at the Ravenswood power plant.6,5
Seven states moved immediately to block the arrangement. On Tuesday (2026-06-02), attorneys general led by New York's Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul, alongside counterparts from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island, filed suit against the administration over the TotalEnergies deal. Their complaint alleged the New York project would have delivered $10 billion in ratepayer savings, including $500 million for low-income households, eenews.net reported.3,5,6
That legal challenge did not halt further settlements. Ocean Winds received $915 million to abandon two projects off the coasts of New York and California. In late June 2026, Duke Energy collected $129 million to exit its North Carolina offshore wind plans. Each deal follows the same structure: refund the lease acquisition cost, redirect capital to fossil fuels, vacate the sector entirely.2,7
ClearView Energy Partners estimates more than 20 leases valued at nearly $2 billion remain outstanding, suggesting further agreements are probable in coming months, Rigzone reported.8
For RWE, the $1.22 billion U.S. payout arrives as European offshore wind also faces strain in its home market. The German wind industry association BWO said on Wednesday (2026-05-20) that up to 16 gigawatts of German offshore capacity was effectively stalled due to grid connection delays and supply chain disruptions, putting EUR 45 billion of investment at risk, Montel reported. Reports from the week of 2026-05-18 had already indicated TotalEnergies and BP were weighing divestment of 11.5 gigawatts of European offshore projects given the sector's deteriorating investment outlook.1
The New York-led lawsuit filed on Tuesday (2026-06-02) remains pending, with no ruling date indicated. With ClearView estimating nearly $2 billion in outstanding U.S. lease value, the final cost to federal taxpayers turns on how many remaining developers accept settlement terms before any court order intervenes.8,3