The Trump administration signed a $1 billion agreement with TotalEnergies that will see the French energy giant abandon two offshore wind projects and redirect the funds toward the country’s fossil fuel industry.
One of the scrapped projects would have provided enough renewable electricity to power more than one million homes in New York state and New Jersey; instead, taxpayer money will flow to the Rio Grande LNG plant under construction in Texas and other oil and gas activities in the country. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the company wasn’t renouncing onshore wind, but “in the US, where you have huge amounts of land and natural resources, offshore wind is not the most affordable way to produce electricity.”
The deal comes despite growing warnings from experts about the risks of fossil fuel dependency, as price volatility from the war in Iran hits even countries with abundant fossil resources: Higher energy costs in the US are already being felt at the pump, inflationary pressures are intensifying, and transport and heating costs are rising.
