Aerial view of wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Farm on January 13, 2026 in Livermore, California.
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The White House agreed to pay. total energy The French energy giant’s investment will instead be diverted to US LNG production, with $1 billion to shelve an east coast wind project it slammed as “costly”.
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced Monday a “landmark agreement” with Total Energy that will see the company “redirect funding from expensive and unreliable offshore wind leases to affordable, reliable natural gas projects that provide safe energy to hardworking Americans.”
TotalEnergies has committed to investing approximately $1 billion, the value of abandoned offshore wind leases, in U.S. oil and natural gas and LNG production, DOI said in a statement.
The department announced that in response to the new investment, the U.S. will reimburse the company in dollar increments up to the amount it paid for the lease purchase of offshore wind power.
The agreement forces Total Energy to shelve offshore wind development in New York and the Carolinas. Instead, it will invest in the development of four systems at the Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas and in conventional oil and shale gas production upstream on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his distaste for offshore wind energy development, frequently denouncing such projects as expensive and ugly.
The announcement comes as the Iran conflict continues to disrupt global oil and gas supplies and the United States, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), becomes an even more important supplier to markets in Asia and Europe.
DOI said Monday that Total Energy has committed not to develop new offshore wind projects in the United States “in light of national security concerns,” and CNBC said it has reached out to Total Energy for comment and is awaiting a response.
TotalEnergies Chairman of the Board and CEO Patrick Pouyanne was quoted in a statement by DOI as saying that the company was pleased to sign the settlement agreement and “support the government’s energy policy.”
“Considering that the development of offshore wind power projects is not in the national interest, we have decided to abandon offshore wind power development in the United States in exchange for the return of lease fees,” he said.
Pouyanne said the agreement would allow the group to “support the development of U.S. gas production and exports.”
“These investments will help provide much-needed LNG from the US to Europe and provide gas for data center development in the US. We believe this is a more efficient use of capital in the US,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum called the agreement with the French energy giant “another victory for President Trump’s commitment to providing affordable and reliable energy to all Americans.”
“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally destructive and subsidy-dependent programs ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers. We welcome Total Energy’s commitment to developing projects that produce reliable and affordable electricity to lower Americans’ monthly bills,” he added.
