Trump administration to pay German firm $1.2bn to halt US wind projects
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- RWE agreed to abandon its US offshore wind projects after a $1.2bn (£892m) payout deal with the Department of the Interior, saying there was "no path forward to permit these projects in the US for the foreseeable future."
- RWE will reinvest $900m (£669m) of the payout into a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana, pivoting from offshore wind to fossil fuel infrastructure.
- RWE is relinquishing offshore leases off California, Louisiana, and the New York Bight, while planning approximately €17bn ($19.6bn) in total US investment over six years to grow its generation capacity.
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum framed the deal as a move away from "costly subsidies" toward an energy system "built on common sense," welcoming RWE's "voluntary investment" in energy security.
- The Trump administration has struck similar buyout-style deals this year, including a March 2026 agreement with TotalEnergies to end its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a Texas LNG plant and Gulf oil development, and a $129m agreement with Duke Energy last month to terminate its Carolina Long Bay lease.
- Trump has repeatedly attacked wind power, calling turbines "ugly," "big, ugly windmills," and saying this week that "any country with windmills is a loser."
Why it matters: US taxpayers are funding a foreign company's pivot from wind to fossil fuels: the $1.2bn payout lets RWE redirect $900m straight into a Louisiana LNG terminal, accelerating gas-export capacity while the government pays wind developers to walk away. The pattern — TotalEnergies in March, Duke Energy last month, now RWE — shows the administration systematically converting would-be renewable projects into fossil fuel investment.
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