California and New York sue over Trump push to halt wind energy projects

Democratic attorneys general from California and New York have sued the Trump administration over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

California attorney general Rob Bonta said he was suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June it was buying back the company’s US offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the east and west coasts.

New York attorney general Letitia James, meanwhile, led seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and another proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.

The deals would hand energy companies $1.4bn in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the cancellation of multiple projects. In all, the Trump administration has pledged nearly $4bn to companies to walk away from projects across the country.

The Interior Department started buying back offshore wind leases in March after federal courts thwarted Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action.

In exchange for reimbursements of lease fees, companies are investing in fossil fuel projects and geothermal energy. Interior secretary Doug Burgum has said that companies “are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs”.

James called the deals illegal and said they would ultimately increase Americans’ electricity bills by sabotaging states’ ability to meet growing energy demands.

“Americans are facing increasing energy costs because this administration would rather pay off energy companies than let us build the new power sources we need,” James said in a statement. “These illegal backroom deals take money that should have gone toward lowering New Yorkers’ bills and hand it to fossil fuel projects in other states.”

Bonta said that as a national and global leader in the fight against climate change, California finds itself enmeshed in “avoidable and unnecessary battles with our own federal government” to advance climate action and move toward clean energy.

Bonta, speaking at a Climate Week event in New York, said climate action needs to match the scope, speed and scale of the problem.

“Because we have to go to court and block an unlawful action by the Trump administration each time, it takes time. It slows the process down and we know we are running out of time and we need to be urgent and aggressive,” Bonta said Tuesday in remarks just before Trump addressed the UN general assembly.

“We’re still all in, in California,” Bonta said. “No matter what the Trump administration does, we’re going to push to participate in the climate action that is needed to meet this moment and to rise to the occasion.”

Later in the day, Bonta was among the California and New York officials participating in a Climate Week panel about state leadership on wind energy. California energy commission chair David Hochschild said at the New York City bar that the power to drive a transition away from fossil fuels still rests primarily with the states.

While Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, can slow it down and make it more expensive, Hochschild said, “he can’t put the genie back in the bottle”.

Trump has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built.

New York state energy research and development authority president Doreen Harris said they are all confident they will ultimately succeed in court, however they need energy infrastructure in their states for a reliable grid.

“The reality is, even if successful, the question becomes who is going to invest,” Harris said. She added: '“We just want to get back to building.”

Attorneys general in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York’s suit.