WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced a deal on Monday to reimburse a French energy company nearly $1 billion in exchange for scrapping two offshore wind projects in the Atlantic and reinvesting that money into natural gas.
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The deal requires Totalenergies to forfeit its federal leases for offshore wind projects in North Carolina and New York. The Trump administration would then reimburse the $928 million the company has invested, with the agreement that the company would then use that money to invest in a Texas facility that prepares natural gas for export and for offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The North Carolina project was part of the Carolina Long Bay lease area, 22 miles off the southeastern coast of the state.
The project reportedly had the potential to power 300,000 homes by the mid-to-late 2030s.
According to a release from the Interior Department, the deal will help make energy more reliable and affordable for Americans, as offshore wind projects are expensive and tend to take several years to build.
The Southeastern Wind Coalition put out a statement condemning the deal, saying it threatens North Carolina’s ability to keep the power grid clean and reliable by taking away a project already under development.
“We have seen firsthand how offshore wind has bolstered the U.S. grid this winter by providing zero-cost fuel during extreme winter weather that caused other fuel prices to spike,“ SEWC’s president Katharine Kollins said. ”Now, is the time to be expanding our options, not taking them away.”
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