Washington to pay German firm $1.2 billion to follow Trump's energy shift

The US administration has agreed to pay a German energy giant a whopping $1.2 billion to end its offshore wind projects in the country, marking another setback for the sector as President Donald Trump’s government moves to prioritize fossil fuel development.

German company RWE announced on August 6 that it would abandon its offshore wind leases after determining that “there is no path forward to permit these projects in the US for the foreseeable future.”

The agreement covers the company’s planned projects off the coasts of California and Louisiana, as well as in the New York Bight.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the deal, saying Americans need an energy system based on “common sense” rather than reliance on “costly subsidies.”

“We welcome RWE's agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation's energy security,” Burgum said in a statement posted on X.

The move reflects the Trump administration’s broader effort to reverse the expansion of offshore wind energy and increase investment in conventional energy sources such as oil and natural gas.

Shortly after returning to the White House, Trump criticized wind energy projects, saying “we’re not going to do the wind thing” and referring to turbines as “big, ugly windmills” that threaten wildlife.

Following the agreement, RWE said it plans to redirect the funds into conventional energy projects, including a $900 million investment in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana.

Offshore wind projects increasingly targeted

RWE is not the first company to abandon offshore wind plans under the current administration.

In March 2026, the Interior Department reached an agreement with French energy company TotalEnergies that ended its offshore wind projects in the United States. The company instead committed to redirecting investment toward an LNG facility in Texas and developing conventional oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The administration also reached a $129 million agreement with US energy company Duke Energy in exchange for terminating its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area.

The major shift in the country’s energy directive came in December 2025, when the US government ordered an immediate suspension of all five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction, citing national security concerns.

The Interior Department did not provide detailed evidence explaining the alleged risks, but officials argued that offshore wind infrastructure could potentially be exploited by foreign adversaries for surveillance or attacks against the United States.

Particular attention has focused on possible interference between wind turbines and military radar systems.

Speaking to Fox News in December 2025, Burgum warned that offshore wind farms could create vulnerabilities.

“If you wanted to attack a population center on the East Coast of our country, you would send a swarm of drones right through one of these wind farms,” he said.

The latest agreement further highlights the widening divide in US energy policy, with the administration favoring fossil fuel 

By Nazrin Sadigova