Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James have announced that New York State and seven other state attorneys general are suing to block the federal government from paying $1.4 billion in taxpayer money to offshore wind developers in exchange for canceling offshore wind projects and reallocating the money to fossil fuel plants.
Announced on Sept. 22 during Climate Week NYC, held annually alongside the United Nations General Assembly, one lawsuit challenges a deal with Bluepoint Wind, the other with Invenergy. The attorneys general argue that the deals are an illegal use of taxpayer dollars and sabotage states’ ability to meet growing energy demands.
The lawsuits ask courts to halt the cancellation of offshore leases, “which kill critical wind projects just to bankroll fossil fuel plants elsewhere in the country,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.
The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont joined Ms. James in the lawsuits. California is filing a separate, concurrent lawsuit challenging a deal between Invenergy and the administration regarding a lease cancellation off the West Coast.
The Trump administration has made considerable effort to kill the nascent offshore wind industry while promoting polluting fossil fuel-derived energy. The federal Interior Department issued stop-work orders on the construction of five wind farms off the East Coast last year, but all were struck down.
This year, the federal government has gone directly to developers of offshore wind. Bluepoint Wind canceled its lease in federal waters within the New York Bight, and the Interior Department paid the developer $765 million from the U.S. Treasury’s Judgment Fund, a taxpayer-funded account reserved for legal settlements. Instead of a wind farm, Bluepoint will use the money to build a liquified natural gas facility and has committed not to pursue future offshore wind projects in the United States.
The Interior Department later announced that it would pay Invenergy $653 million, also from the Judgment Fund, to abandon plans to build multiple wind farms, one of which would have been situated in the New York Bight. It will redirect that money to natural gas plants in Midwestern states and geothermal projects in the Western U.S., “none of which will deliver a single watt of power to New York,” according to the governor and attorney general’s statement.
Neither Bluepoint Wind nor Invenergy replied to emails seeking comment.
“The Trump administration’s unlawful pay-to-not-play scheme to pressure companies to forgo planned offshore wind projects in America is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability to meet our energy needs, reduce emissions, create well-paying jobs, and help secure American energy independence,” the governor said in the Sept. 22 statement. “Working with Attorney General James and the seven other A.G.s who filed this lawsuit, we will continue to fight back against the unending war against clean energy being waged by this president and his Republican allies to ensure a healthier and cleaner future that allows us to keep the lights on and costs down here in New York.”
“These illegal backroom deals take money that should have gone toward lowering New Yorkers’ bills and hand it to fossil fuel projects in other states, all while our energy demand continues to grow,” Ms. James said in the same statement. “At a moment when every available resource should go to keeping the lights on and prices down, this administration is choosing corruption over communities. We will fight until these unlawful deals are struck down.”
The governor and attorney general noted that the two canceled New York Bight wind farms, which would have connected to New York City’s electric grid, were expected to bring a more than $16 billion investment to the state and create more than 2,800 jobs. Combined with the other wind farms proposed by Invenergy, the canceled projects were expected to generate more than eight gigawatts of electricity, sufficient to power more than four million residences.
The state’s electricity demand is projected to grow by 8 percent by 2030 and 24 percent by 2040. At the same time that it is handcuffed by the administration’s deals with offshore wind developers, aging fossil fuel generators are approaching retirement, “making new sources of power essential to meeting growing demand and maintaining grid reliability,” according to the statement. Electricity scarcity, grid congestion, and higher costs for residents will be the inevitable result, Ms. Hochul and Ms. James said.
The 12-turbine South Fork Wind farm, 35 miles east of Montauk Point, was completed and began operation during President Biden’s administration. A spokeswoman for Orsted, its developer, declined to comment on the lawsuits announced last week, which do not affect its projects. She did say that Revolution Wind, one of five wind farms for which the Interior Department issued a pause that was later struck down, has completed the installation of its 65 wind turbines. A joint venture with Skyborn Renewables, Revolution Wind delivered its first power to New England’s grid in the spring, she said, and is anticipated to commence commercial operation later this year.
Orsted’s 84-turbine Sunrise Wind, also the subject of a pause on its lease last year, remains under construction approximately 30 miles east of Montauk Point. Twenty turbines have been installed, the spokeswoman said, with the commissioning of turbines expected to begin later this year and commercial operation starting in the second half of 2027.
The Empire Wind 1 farm, a 54-turbine, 810-megawatt project being built 15 to 30 miles southeast of Long Island by the Norwegian company Equinor and which is to send electricity to New York City, remains under construction and is expected to be operational next year.
