Trump administration to pay $765 mln to scrap four more offshore wind leases

The Trump administration has agreed to a $765 million reimbursement settlement with Invenergy, allowing the company to develop natural gas and geothermal projects instead of offshore wind farms.

The Trump administration ​on Wednesday announced a reimbursement ‌settlement agreement ​with power project developer Invenergy to terminate four wind leases off the coasts of New York, California ‌and Maine.

The Department of the Interior said in a statement that it will refund $765 million to Invenergy, which will use those funds to develop natural gas ‌power plants in four Midwestern states and geothermal projects in the ‌Western United States. The deal is one of several the administration has announced this year as part of a wide-ranging effort to stop development of U.S. offshore wind projects, which ⁠it regards ​as costly and inefficient. ⁠President Donald Trump's administration has sought to increase domestic fossil fuel production and scrapped policies ⁠that support clean energy development, which has been criticized by Democrats and advocates.

Seven U.S. ​states sued the administration for reimbursements over the first such agreement, with ⁠France's TotalEnergies , earlier this month. "We applaud Invenergy for recognizing the importance of baseload power ⁠and ​investing in energy solutions that deliver real benefits to American consumers," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.

The company's senior vice president ⁠for development, Daniel Runyan, said in Interior's statement that the Chicago-based company would "deploy additional ⁠capital into projects ⁠that can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline and meet customer demand while continuing to evaluate opportunities as market ‌conditions evolve."