French energy giant TotalEnergies walked away from its U.S. offshore wind projects — and it’s getting paid $1 billion to do so. The company signed a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior on March 23, 2026, giving up two offshore wind leases in exchange for a full reimbursement of the fees it originally paid.
TotalEnergies is walking away from U.S. offshore wind — and collecting $1 billion on the way out.
The two leases involved were the Carolina Long Bay lease off North Carolina and the New York Bight lease off New York State. Both were awarded to TotalEnergies in 2022 during the Biden administration. The projects tied to those leases — called Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay — will now never be built.
The Interior Department agreed to reimburse roughly $1 billion in lease fees. The Justice Department handled the compensation payments, which exceeded $928 million for TotalEnergies’ winning bids in the original lease sales. The company’s getting back everything it paid to secure those leases.
As part of the deal, TotalEnergies committed to no longer develop offshore wind projects in the United States. That’s a permanent exit from U.S. offshore wind development for the company.
But the money isn’t going back into clean energy. TotalEnergies pledged to reinvest the roughly $1 billion into oil and natural gas projects. That includes helping finance construction of the Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas, a liquefied natural gas facility with a reported capacity of 29 million tonnes per year. The focus is shifting entirely to fossil fuel expansion. The company will also direct funds toward upstream conventional oil development in the Gulf of America.
The settlement fits squarely into the Trump administration’s broader energy strategy. The administration’s been pushing to grow oil, natural gas, and LNG production while pulling back support for renewables. TotalEnergies leadership echoed that position, stating that offshore wind development isn’t in the country’s interest. Adding to its LNG expansion, TotalEnergies also signed a Letter of Intent with Glenfarne for long-term LNG offtake of 2 million tons per year over 20 years, subject to a final investment decision.
The agreement marks what analysts describe as a sharp turn from Biden-era energy policy, which had pushed hard to expand offshore wind. Now, two of the biggest federal offshore wind leases from that era are officially canceled, and the money behind them is being redirected toward fossil fuels.
References
- https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-and-totalenergies-agree-end-offshore-wind-projects-lowering-costs-american
- https://totalenergies.com/news/press-releases/united-states-totalenergies-signs-agreements-us-department-interior-end-its-us
- https://www.netzeroinvestor.net/news-and-views/totalenergies-abandons-us-offshore-wind-redirects-1bn-to-oil-and-gas
- https://energynow.com/2026/03/us-weighs-near-1-billion-settlement-with-totalenergies-for-abandoning-wind-farms-nyt-reports/
- https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/trumps-1b-payout-totalenergies-legal-concerns
