The Trump administration is drafting settlement agreements which would pay close to $1 billion to TotalEnergies in exchange for the cancellation of its leases for the 3-GW Attentive Energy and 1.2-GW Carolina Long Bay offshore wind projects, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The plans for a buyout proposal come after the administration was unsuccessful in halting the five utility-scale offshore wind projects for which construction is well underway, with Vineyard Wind 1 completing construction last week. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued stop work orders against the five projects in December, and all were struck down in federal court.
In 2022, TotalEnergies purchased the Carolina Long Bay lease for $160 million and the Attentive Energy lease for $795 million — for a total of $955 million. The Trump administration is prepared to offer the company $928 million for the two leases, the New York Times said. BOEM was not immediately available for comment.
The Carolina Long Bay lease area is offshore North and South Carolina, while the Attentive Energy lease is in the New York Bight area offshore New York and New Jersey. The Attentive Energy lease is a joint venture with Corio Generation and Rise Light & Power, which took stakes of 27.7% and 16.3% respectively.
The Attentive Energy project was covered by Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or FAST-41, a federal program aimed at accelerating permitting for large infrastructure projects. FAST-41’s website estimated that the permitting for Attentive Energy would be completed by the end of 2029.
TotalEnergies said in May 2022, after the completion of the lease sale, that it anticipated the Carolina Long Bay project would come online in 2030. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
