Seven Democratic States Sue Trump Administration to Block Settlement Refund to TotalEnergies After Offshore Wind Lease Cancellations

Seven Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration Tuesday to overturn a March agreement that refunded nearly $1 billion to French energy company TotalEnergies for canceling offshore wind leases off New York and North Carolina. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims the Interior Department canceled the leases without following required procedures.

It names Interior Secretary Doug Burgum among the defendants. New York Attorney General Letitia James led the filing and was joined by attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont. The states say the canceled New York lease would have supplied electricity to nearly one million homes and produced $10 billion in ratepayer savings.

TotalEnergies had paid $795 million for the New York-New Jersey lease and about $133 million for the Carolina Long Bay lease. The states are asking the court to vacate both the lease cancellation and the settlement agreement with TotalEnergies subsidiary Attentive Energy. They contend the deal will eliminate more than 1,000 union jobs and raise electricity costs for millions of residents.

U.S. energy projects after providing the government an interest-free loan. The Trump administration has reached similar agreements worth nearly $2 billion to end other offshore wind projects after courts blocked earlier executive actions.

Democrats in Congress are investigating the TotalEnergies deal, and California is examining a separate floating-wind agreement off its coast. Bluepoint Wind also agreed to relinquish an early-stage lease off New Jersey and New York, though that agreement is not part of Tuesday's lawsuit because the lease has not yet been formally canceled.