By David Wojick
The Trump administration is terminating the existing site leases for monster offshore wind development projects by refunding the lease payments already made. The wind-loving Democrats are nonsensically calling this a “buyout” supposedly done at taxpayer expense.
Of course, this costs the taxpayers nothing because the money comes from the developers who are simply getting it back. The taxpayers may even benefit from these near billion-dollar deals depending on how the Feds use the money while they have it, which can be many years in some cases.
Here are the two big deals so far:
TotalEnergies (March): The Interior Department agreed to a near-$1 billion reimbursement to cancel leases off New York and North Carolina. The French company is redirecting these funds to a Texas LNG export facility.
Ocean Winds (April): The administration reached an $885 million deal with a joint venture between France’s ENGIE and Portugal’s EDP to terminate the Bluepoint Wind (New York/New Jersey) and Golden State Wind (California) projects. The funds are to be redirected into oil and gas development including LNG.
Of course, there was an immediate outcry from the wind-loving left. Several top-ranking House and Senate Democrats opened investigations and sent letters of inquiry but, so far, nothing has come of that. Various legal objections have been posited.
In Congressional jargon, the top minority party member of a committee is called the ranking member, all Democrats in today’s Congress. The ranking members of the House Judiciary and House Natural Resources Committees sent a joint inquiry to TotalEnergies. (One word with a capital in the middle is their goofy idea, not a typo.)
The evergreen Sen. Whitehouse, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, also opened an investigation. Ranking members have little authority, so these actions may mean little for now.
In addition, and to no one’s surprise, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior questioning the TotalEnergies deal.
California also got into the act. The California Energy Commission is investigating the deal with Golden State Wind. The commission issued a subpoena to Ocean Winds seeking documents in what it claimed were “backroom deals” involving taxpayer dollars.
Given the arcane intricacy of U.S. administrative law, it is always possible that these deals will get stopped. But for now, it is likely that more deals will be done.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has awarded nearly three dozen offshore wind leases since July 2013. The deals to date are for some of the biggest leases, so a very good start, but there is still a long way to go.
The wind-lovers have universally referred to these deals as “buyouts” and “payoffs,” but you cannot buy someone out or pay them off with their own money. A refund is not a buyout. If I buy concert tickets and the concert is cancelled, refunding my money is certainly not buying me out or paying me off.
Word has it that the Feds told the developers to take the deal or they would simply cancel the leases, letting the developers sue to try to get their money back, someday. The Feds have a strong lever here which explains their getting promises from the developers that they would reinvest the refund in oil and gas development.
Whoever came up with this leverage deserves a lot of credit. The President is a big-time, long-time deal maker so maybe he did it.
If Congress changes hands in the coming elections, a lot of this resistance could become much more serious with Democrats chairing committees. Or something could happen sooner than that, and there are a lot of offshore wind leases still to go.
Stay tuned to CFACT as this deal making drama plays out. It is not a done deal.
Climate alarmists never let actual facts get in the way of a good way to score political points, even if they know they are misleading the public.
‘Business as usual’, indeed!
High level elitists worldwide, both business and political, are trying to turn CO2 into tradeable or at least a taxable commodity….so they can make money off it, to be spent in ways that they control….they find they have pretty well stripped the easy uncontrolled money out of the regular tax system….tax payers are at their limit for presently declared tax burdens, so they found income earners would fall for, and pay more for, environmental issues that are pretty easy to hype in the media….It’s not really a left or right political issue….it has to do with green wishers of any stripe believing that more government can fix a problem espoused by government “scientists” who know where their paycheck comes from.
Trying to? Carbon offsets, cap and trade, etc. has been ongoing for decades.
> The California Energy Commission is investigating the deal with Golden State Wind. The commission issued a subpoena to Ocean Winds seeking documents in what it claimed were “backroom deals” involving taxpayer dollars.
Shock. Surprise.
I’d be shocked and surprised if anyone could show a deal in California that wasn’t the product of a backroom deal.
Whitehouse, Markey, AOC, and the California Energy Commission don’t like refunds. There’s a “fearsome foursome”, not. I feel their pain, and love it! Step it up! Trump saving dems from themselves and they don’t appreciate it. Go figure.
Trump’s ‘billion-dollar giveaway’ to France?
There was no giveaway, as the leftist, woke, fake-news Media would have you believe with their malicious, slanted TDS reporting.
During the disastrous, autopen Biden regime, the French Total Energies had paid about $1 billion to the US to buy federal leases to put up a few thousand MW of offshore windmills.
However, Trump renegotiated the deal. He told the French, you will be in litigation for years to get your money back, or you can immediately invest that money in power plants for AI data centers. The French eagerly took the deal
The French will invest the lease money in power plants for AI data centers in Texas.
That investment in 60%-efficient, gas fired, CCGT power plants will start providing the French with guaranteed returns for about 40 years, as soon as those plants are up and running.
All his
negotiationblack mailing did was showing foreign investors that the US is not safe for investment anymore.The 2026 economy could have been great — if not for Trump
https://www.vox.com/politics/489397/inflation-prices-iran-war-tariffs-trump
World Trade Without the US
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/world-trade-without-us
Compared to dysfunctional Europe, the US is doing great.
Europe’s Steady Decline Started in the 1970s
European elites, after loss of their colonies from which they had extracted huge wealth for 500 years, found that these same colonies wanted to use their fossil fuels and other resources to develop their own economies. Countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America became centers of industrial production, especially China and India.
The “Golden Age” of rapid European post-war growth formally ended in the early 1970s. The collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system (1971) and the 1973 oil crisis created massive inflation and high unemployment, a phenomenon known as stagflation. During this time, the US and emerging Asian economies began reducing Europe’s share of world exports.
Whereas European productivity growth remained relatively strong through the 1980s, the turning point was 1995. Since 1995, the US and Asian markets experienced a massive technological and productivity upsurge. Whereas Europe’s economy continued to grow, it grew significantly slower than the US, India, China, etc., leading to a steady decline in Europe’s share of global GDP.
Because of decades of poor decision making by the elites of European governments Europe became increasingly less competitive in world markets. Not only did Europe decline from a lofty perch but then proceeded to dig a deep hole for further decline, such as:
1) Grossly excessive rules and regulations, emanating from bureaucratic Brussels, that act as a wet blanket on economies, and
2) Restructuring its economy based on fossil fuels, nuclear, etc., with one based on weather-dependent wind, solar, batteries, etc., and
3) Encouraging the displacement of native populations with 64.2 million unvetted, uneducated, untrained dregs from mostly Islamic Third World countries by 2025 (not counting their children and grandchildren born in Europe).
How will Europe ever get rid of these people, before its rapidly growing population is greater than the shrinking population of natives?
And more recently:
4) Blaming Russia, the invader of Ukraine, which wants to sell low-cost fossil fuels and other resources much needed by Europe, but Europe imposed sanctions so Russia cannot profit from them.
5) After NATO was established, European elites saved themselves $trillions by spending only 0.5 to 1.5% of GDP on their own defense, while the US spent about 4 to 5% to keep the peace in the world. That grossly inequitable situation came to a screeching halt in 2025, when Trump required Europe to spend up to 5% of GDP for their own defense, because the US, with a balance-of-payments net outflow, aka giant sucking sound, of more than $1.11 trillion at end 2025, was “busy elsewhere”.
Trump imposed tariffs on European imports to reduce the US trade deficit, will reduce US troops and their costs in Europe, requires Europe pay for its own defense, no longer wants to pay for Ukraine, but will provide US weaponry, if Europe pays for them.
The US has earned a lot of money with weapon sales in europe – under trump this now changes and they invest more in local weapon production. (Same with IT services. Guess what europe is doing in that regard now…)
They also need european bases for power projection. Removing troops from europe will weaken the US. Although crime probably goes down in europe.
The petrodollar system was also a massive boon for the US, another thing trump jeopardizes now.
Europeans also had to take care of the refugees US wars created. Guess that’s the peace the US brings. As Iran shows they just make a fool out of themselves when they go alone and then cry for their allies to help them (again)
On the current trajactory the US will isolate itself while europe and other powers will form new alliances and trade deals.
You are always free to dream about your glorious past, though. I’m sure Hollywood will deliver the fitting prpaganda for it.
Lee Zeldin, US EPA Administrator During Hearings Before the US Senate
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin calls out Democrat Senator Sheldon WhiteClub: “I’m not going to take morality lessons from people who join, you know, all‑white country clubs.”
Zeldin explained: “When predictions are made in the past… will have a range of the pessimistic to the optimistic. And to justify, for example, the 2009 endangerment finding, they were adopting the most pessimistic views of the science.
Now, when you get to 2026, great news, you’re able to rely on present day facts in 2026, rather than any bad assumptions from 2009.
And just because you take exception when a member of Congress says in January of 2019, in 12 years the world’s about to end, if we’re sitting here today saying, well, gosh, it’s only four years and nine months left, I don’t think the world is about to end, they want to vilify you as if you’re denying science.
I mean, I just saw a clip yesterday where Al Gore was talking about global freezing. I’m having trouble keeping up. I thought it was global warming, and now it’s global freezing.
And I don’t know what kind of money is made. You want to know how [they’re] making money from their climate grift.
Well, what won’t get referenced by your colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle, who bring up the greenhouse gas reduction fund is that the money was going to former Obama and Biden officials.
The money was going to Democratic donors. The conflicts of interests that we saw. The amount of self-dealing, the unqualified recipients.
The Climate United Fund CEO was a special assistant in OMB during the Obama–Biden administration. They received $6.9 billion dollars. And we could go down the list with that entity.
You go through the Coalition for Green Capital, about a Biden–Harris climate advisor serving on the board or joining the board in ’23 while the organization was applying for GGRF.
Power Forward Community CEO, CEO of Fannie Mae during the Obama–Biden administration.
By the way, if we had 10 more minutes, I could just go through conflicts of interest. They’re not offended by that.
So, we just want to stick to the truth. We want to stick to the to the science. And if you don’t agree with them, you don’t follow their logic, well, they’ll want to vilify you.
But hey, as long as we stay true to these facts, it’s good to go.
I told Senator Sheldon WhiteClub today that I won’t be listening to, or caring about, any of his lessons on morality knowing that he joined an all-white Rhode Island Country Club.
I’m also done with the likes of AOC, Al Gore, John Kerry, and the rest of the lying cabal that make stupid climate predictions, plunder tens of billions of tax dollars, enrich their well-connected allies, and are committed to strangulating out of existence entire sectors of our economy.
Climate alarmist AOC wants to be taken seriously while also insisting the world is imminently about to end due to climate change (Just under 5 years remain on her nutty Jan 2019 prediction that only 12 years of life are left on Earth).
Al Gore is now speaking publicly about his concern with global freezing after decades of grift-talking about global warming.
“Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro,” said Gore in 2006 (There’s still snow on Kilimanjaro year-round).
Gore also predicted in 2009 ice-free Arctic summers within 5-7 years.
John Kerry warned in 2009 that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2013.
All these people, and their followers, are dishonest, power-hungry hacks.
The GREEN NEW SCAM is DEAD!!!”
So you are saying the US military in Europe is a significant percentage of crime in Europe?
Erm….
Have some catnip. You need it.
I’m just saying they have a drug and crime problem at home and they are not sending their best…
You have no clue what you’re talking about.
You’re basically claiming that the entire US military is dominated by criminals and drug addicts, which is simply not true. People with active drug problems could not make it through boot camp, considering that they barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone find a source for drugs and the privacy to use them. There’s also regular drug testing. Anyway, last time I checked, Frankfurt was the most modern, cleanest, safest city in Germany, and that’s home to one of the largest US bases. Meanwhile, rapes and assaults by the various foreign invaders who claim to be refugees (funny how about 80% of them seem to be single men in their prime) have increased exponentially in other parts of Germany
I’ve been to Frankfurt, your idea of it is…something else. But I had a really good laugh, thanks.
Europe still needs no military from a country with a failing education system and a failing democracy.
The picture of europe as an overrun crime ridden continent is exactly what the US-right wants to paint (“no-go zones”, lol). You can keep that at your side of the atlantic.
Have fun projecting power without allies.
The Climate Change alarmist love to play with the meanings of words – it lets them always win the argument., at least in their own minds.
Yes they have a whole self-affirming language. Search the definitions of “climate change” and many say it is human caused (by definition). CO2 “traps heat” so more has to trap more. That is often the entire science for an alarmist. There should be a glossary of alarmism.
Wasting taxpayer money to drive up energy costs and increase pollution. The trump regime is terrible at policy
Taxpayer money? Did you read the article? And OSW is ridiculously expensive.
Higher Fuel costs and lowered fuel economy standards – and the US car industry is cheering for
their own destructionthe next tax payer bailoutCalifornia has the highest fuel costs of the non-island states. California also has the highest contribution of wind and solar supplying the grid. These two statistics are linked. Intermittent power supplies must be either backed up 100% by dispatchable power and/or supplemented by power purchased from external power sources. Back-ups and inter-state power purchases are very expensive.
So wrong.
Enjoying the catnip?
Wind and solar reduce fuel costs but increase system costs. They are actually just an expensive emission reduction technology that uses power generation to reduce harmless emissions. They are not a power generation technology.
EUROPE AIMS TO WEAKEN THE US WITH EXPENSIVE OFFSHORE WINDMILLS THAT PRODUCE EXPENSIVE, LOW-QUALITY ELECTRICITY
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/europe-attempts-to-entangle-us-with-expensive-offshore-windmills
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Net zero by 2050 Euro elites tried to weaken the US, with help of the unpatriotic, leftist Biden clique, into going down the black hole of 30,000 MW by 2030 of expensive, highly subsidized, weather-dependent, grid-disturbing offshore windmill systems, which would need expensive, highly subsidized, short-lived, battery systems for grid support.
.
If little wind and little or no solar, aka DUNKELFLAUTE, there is near-zero output of wind and solar, and a large fleet of OTHER plants, domestic or foreign, must provide the missing electricity up to demand, 24/7/365
These other plants must be fueled, staffed, kept in good working order to instantly provide what is missing.
The more wind and solar tied to the expanded/reinforced/more complex grid, the more OTHER plants.
THAT DOES NOT COME FOR FREE.
Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 30 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 41 c/kWh, no subsidies
Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 15 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 26 c/kWh, 50% subsidies
Hidden Costs: Filling-in capacity, balancing capacity, counteracting capacity, grid extension/reinforcement, etc., about 11 c/kWh; powerplant to landfill basis.
This compares with 7 c/kWh + 3 c/kWh = 10 c/kWh from existing gas, coal, nuclear, large reservoir hydro plants.
Some values increase due to inflation and as more W/S systems are added to the grid.
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Such expensive W/S electricity would have made the US even less competitive in world markets.
Any US tariffs on the European supply of wind systems would greatly increase their turnkey capital costs/MW and their electricity costs/ kWh.
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Almost the entire supply of the wind projects would be:
1) designed and made in Europe,
2) then transported across the Atlantic Ocean by European specialized ships,
3) then unloaded at new, taxpayer-financed, $500-million storage/pre-assembly/staging/barge-loading areas,
4) then barged to European specialized erection ships for erection of the windmill systems.
5) The financing would be mostly by European pension funds, that pay benefits to European retirees.
.
Hundreds of people in each seashore state would have jobs during the erection phase
The other erection jobs would be by specialized European people, mostly on cranes and ships
Hundreds of people in each seashore state would have long-term O&M jobs, using mostly European spare parts, during the 20-y electricity production phase.
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Conglomerates owned by Euro elites would finance, build, erect, own and operate almost all of the 30,000 MW of offshore windmills, providing work for many thousands of European workers for decades, and multi-$billion profits each year.
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That Euro offshore wind ruse did not work out, because Trump was elected.
Trump-hating, Euro elites are furious. Projects are being cancelled. The European windmill industry is in shambles, with multi-$billion annual losses, lay-offs and tens of $billions of stranded costs.
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Trump spared the US from the W/S evils inflicted by the leftist, woke Democrat cabal, that used an autopen for Biden signatures, and bypassed on-the-beach/in-the-basement Biden, an increasingly dysfunctional Marionette.
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Trump declared a National Energy Emergency. He put W/S/B systems at the bottom of the list, and suspended their licenses to put their rushed, glossy environmental impact statements, EIS, under proper scrutiny.
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Euro elites used the IPCC-invented, “CO2-is-evil” hoax, based on its own “science”.
These elites used:
.
1) the foghorn of government-subsidized Corporate Media to propagate scare-mongering slogans and brainwash the people,
2) censorship to suppress free thinking on town hall forums,
3) election interference, as in Moldova and Georgia,
4) ostracizing /marginalizing major political parties to produce desired outcomes, as in Germany.
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Wall Street elites saw an opportunity for tax shelters for its elite clients.
Woke politicians/bureaucrats were “cut-in” on $juicy deals to pass subsidies, favorable rules and regulations, and impose government mandates.
Euro elites wanted the US to deliver electricity to users at very high c/kWh, to preserve Europe’s extremely advantageous trade balance with the US.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/international-trade-is-a-dog-eat-dog-business
lol. No wonder you don’t think the sun is an energy source
And when their serial manufacturing is considered, they likely do not reduce meaningless “emissions” at all.
Since virtally all of the energy inputs into the related mining of raw materials, refinement of raw materials, manufacturing, erection on site, maintenance and repairs, demolition at end of (very short) operating life, and all transportation in every part of that whole process, come from COAL, OIL AND GAS.
You left out site prep – another energy intensive process that uses a lot of very heavy fossil fuel powered machinery and in many case for wind, involves cutting down a lot of trees.
Good god. Some people don’t think the sun provides energy 🙄
Sure, it provides energy, it’s capturing that energy that costs a lot and gobbles up a lot of land.
The video linked below shows, among other things, a comparison between Blevin Solar Complex in Texas, a 270 MW (nameplate) solar complex covering 2300 acres or 3.5 square miles to Bridge City gas plant, a 1200 MW gas plant covering 26 acres or 88 times smaller. The gas plant produces over 4 times as much electricity 24x7x365 while the solar complex produces electricity maybe 20-25% of the time (not the 270 MW nameplate) and never from dusk to dawn. Also, that solar farm may last 15-20 years at best whereas the gas plant will last 50 years or longer. And, those solar panels don’t just pop up out of thin air – a lot of fossil fuels are burned to power the machinery needed for the enormous amount of mining required in countries around the world to extract the minerals used, then the processing to separate the ore from the overburden, then transport via truck, rail, and ship to manufacturing facility (likely in China), the coal powered energy intensive manufacturing process, transport to the site via truck, rail, and ship, site prep, lifecycle maintenance and ultimate decommissioning – all done by very heavy fossil fuel powered machinery. And what are we going to do with all those end-of-life solar panels (or wind turbines)? And of course, both wind and solar need a backup system for the times the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine adding to overall system cost and environmental impact. And who benefits most from all this? China!
So, let’s do a bit of extrapolation. For Blevin to reach just the nameplate capacity of Bridge City would require over 4 times the amount of land – that is over 15 square miles of solar panels. But, given that solar has a capacity factor of maybe 25%, you would need to multiply that 15 square miles by 4 again to reach the same output as Bridge City – so you are now looking at over 60 square miles of solar panels, and they still do not provide any electricity from dusk to dawn. In fact, the only time they produce at nameplate is between the hours of 10-2 during the time of the year when the sun is directly overhead on clear, cloudless days.
The net is, wind and solar are far more environmentally destructive than hydrocarbons, including coal, and if anything, increase the need for them. Both are parasitic and degrade grid performance leading to brown and black outs – read up on the Duck Curve. https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/sunblock-the-global-fight-to-save
My guess is that wind turbine land requirements are similar. Maybe someone reading this can point to a wind industrial complex (these are not farms) for comparison.
I laugh at all of the idiots driving giant trucks to go get a cup of coffee
Deflection.
Pure sophistry.
It will still hurt the US in the long run.
When will MUR reveal his (her) true name instead of hiding behind some cryptic nonsense? Who provides the funding for it’s nonsense posts?
It’s the internet. Learn how it works.
Nobody cares about your name or self stated credentials here.
Neither does anyone care what religion, gender or skin color you pretend to have.
What counts is your argument.
The incredibly bizarre Dean Browning and “Dan Purdy” Twitter drama, explained
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/11/10/21559458/dean-browning-dan-purdy-byl-holte-patti-labelle-twitter-gay-black-man
Many prominent Maga personalities on X are based outside US, new tool reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/rightwing-influencers-outside-us-x-twitter-tool
And the only one funding me is me, myself and I – As we learned you can believe that or not. It’s up to you.
So Gregory – are you a russian influencer, a bot or a poet? We’ll never know.
We know it is true because it is on the internet.
Everything on the internet is true.
Proof? It says so on the internet.
Get a life.
You wouldn’t be here raging against science and progress if you had one 😛
Good one, Useless. That made me chuckle.
Ah, the catnip works.
I am not raging against science and progress.
I am not raging against anything.
I am making fun of your stupid, idiotic, mindless drival.
Have some more catnip.
If by “science” you mean “propaganda” and if by “progress” you mean “return to the Stone Age.”
😆😅🤣😂
Well your argument(s) are convincing to nobody but the person you see when looking in the mirror!
You can’t expect it of one person whose posts you don’t like, and not apply it everyone who posts anonymously.