Trump Administration Pays $2.6 Billion to Cancel 4 Wind Leases as Workers Fight Stop-Work Orders
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 6
Trump Administration Pays $2.6 Billion to Cancel 4 Wind Leases as Workers Fight Stop-Work Orders
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 6
Summary
$2.6 billion has been paid by the Trump administration to unwind four wind-energy lease deals after it dropped a broader court fight to freeze US wind permitting and leasing.
The Interior Department paid $765 million to Invenergy to abandon four projects in California, New York and Maine, and nearly $900 million to Bluepoint Wind and Garden State Wind to cancel offshore leases.
Hundreds of workers say the campaign has already disrupted jobs through repeated stop-work orders, including at Revolution Wind, where construction is more than 90% complete and the project has started supplying New England.
Union leaders say the administration has lost in court on five Rhode Island-area wind projects and is sacrificing long-term union employment, while Interior argues the canceled leases were not operational and eliminated no jobs.