Seven States Sue Over a Nearly $1 Billion Payment to TotalEnergies to Kill Two Offshore Wind Farms

Seven states sued the Trump administration on June 2, 2026 over its cancellation of a major offshore wind lease off the New York coast. In March, federal officials agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds to the French energy firm TotalEnergies in exchange for the company abandoning two offshore wind farms off New York and North Carolina, pledging not to develop any new U.S. offshore wind projects, and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas instead. The suit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and joined by Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, alleges violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which limits Interior's ability to cancel offshore wind leases, and the Judgment Fund Act, which governs the appropriation used to pay settlements.

The core allegation is that the executive branch used a settlement payment to obtain a policy result courts had blocked it from imposing directly, drawing on an appropriation Congress created for another purpose.

The states asked the court to void the agreement and halt the lease cancellation.