Ocasio-Cortez, Markey Blast Trump Administration Attempt to Pay $1 Billion in Taxpayer Funding to Kill Offshore Wind Projects

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (March 31, 2026) - Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today wrote to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in opposition to the Trump administration’s decision to pay TotalEnergies, a French energy company, nearly $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to cancel two offshore wind facilities off the East Coast of the United States. The lawmakers asked the Administration to stop this pay-off, which will keep much-needed American-made power off the grid, and to explain the statutory authority and funding source of the proposed transfer. The wind farms could have produced enough electricity to power more than one million homes and businesses in New York and New Jersey, and approximately 300,000 in North Carolina. 

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “With the TotalEnergies payoff, the Trump administration promises an extraordinary transfer of taxpayer dollars to a foreign company to halt private offshore wind development and prop up fossil fuel company exports and profits. It has done so with no explanation of its authority—or the source of the funding—to transmit $1 billion to a private company. Moreover, TotalEnergies has made clear it will plow these taxpayer-funded proceeds into expanded oil and gas development, including a Texas liquefied natural gas export facility, effectively using U.S. public funds to ship American energy overseas, strain domestic supply, weaken grid reliability, and expose American families to higher and more volatile prices.”

The lawmakers requested responses to questions by April 10, 2026, that include:

• What specific statutory authority permits the Department of the Interior to use taxpayer funds to compensate TotalEnergies for relinquishing valid offshore wind leases?
• What is the source of the funds for this payment, and did Congress appropriate them for this purpose?
• What specific evidence supports the Administration’s assertion that these offshore wind projects pose a national security concern?
• How does the Department reconcile those national security claims with recent federal court decisions finding insufficient evidence to support them?
• What analysis has the Department conducted on how canceling these offshore wind projects will affect domestic energy supply, grid reliability, and consumer electricity and fuel costs?
• What analysis has the Department conducted on how canceling these offshore wind projects will affect offshore wind workers, including workers in the offshore wind supply chain? 

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