Posted on June 8, 2026
By Saumya Roy
French energy giant TotalEnergies is embroiled in a lawsuit between seven US states and the federal government as the administration of President Donald Trump upends domestic energy policy, shutting down some wind energy projects while pushing fossil fuels.
It has also raised questions about the predictability of the business and investment environment under a president who has peddled back many policies that were set up under his predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, including on investing in renewable energy.
The case is tied to two offshore wind farms that TotalEnergies had planned in the US. The larger one, Attentive Energy, was to be built 54 miles (87km) south of Jones Beach, New York, and would have powered a million homes and businesses in New York and New Jersey. The smaller one, Carolina Long Bay, was meant to start operations in the early 2030s in North Carolina.
In March, TotalEnergies agreed a deal with the Trump administration to abandon those plans for $928m and invest in oil and gas projects instead. This week, seven northeastern states sued the Trump administration over that arrangement.
In their filing, the states’ attorneys general said New York “is in significant need of additional electricity”. The Attentive wind project off the states’ coast would have ensured it and the other northeastern states “the reliability of their grids and also helping them to meet their statutory climate goals”.
On March 23, the administration reached its agreement with TotalEnergies to end the offshore wind leases for Attentive and Carolina Long Bay. In April, it reached a similar deal to cancel the lease for Golden State Wind in Morro Bay, off the central coast of California, and Blue Point Wind, off the coast of New York. The department would pay the developers more than $2bn for withdrawing from the four leases and investing in oil and gas projects instead.
“Calling these deals unusual is a huge understatement,” said Dave Owens, Albert Abramson distinguished professor of Law at the University of California Law School in San Francisco.
“I am not aware of any precedence for this,” said Jordan Diamond of the Environmental Law Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank. This is the first time developers have been paid to withdraw wind power leases.
The California Energy Commission has issued a subpoena to Golden State Wind asking it to produce all documents and emails relating to the deal. This may also lead to litigation against Golden State Wind or even the federal government by California, legal experts say
While the agreements to develop the offshore wind projects were reached between the interior department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the developers, the subpoena filed by California says it would cause a loss of more than $100m to the state for the ports, mooring and other infrastructure it has already built in preparation for the project.
According to the suit filed on Tuesday, the northeastern states say the interior department “failed to (1) provide a reasoned explanation for cancelling the Lease; (2) explain their change in position or account for New York’s reliance interests; (3) address alternative means of achieving their objectives; or objectives; or (4) provide a genuine justification for their actions.”
