Headlines last week (NY Times, NPR, CNN) screamed that President Donald Trump was handing nearly a billion dollars to a French energy giant to cancel building offshore wind farms. The coverage was classic gotcha journalism — misleading, incomplete, and designed to fit a tired narrative. The real story is far more straightforward and sensible.
On March 23, 2026, the Department of the Interior reached a settlement with TotalEnergies. The U.S. government is refunding $928 million — the exact amount the company paid to the Biden administration in 2022 when it won two offshore wind leases off New York/New Jersey and North Carolina.
In return, TotalEnergies will cancel both leases and formally agree not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States. The company will instead redirect that capital into American oil, natural gas, and LNG projects.
This is not corporate welfare. It is a refund of money already paid, exchanged for killing two expensive, unreliable projects before they could burden American ratepayers. And TotalEnergies agreed to keep the money in the U.S. and use it for oil and natural gas. The headline should have read, “Win-Win — Trump gets French company TotalEnergies to invest a billion dollars on reliable, affordable American energy instead of offshore wind.”
Offshore wind electricity is significantly more costly than natural gas. Recent Levelized Cost of Energy analyses show new offshore wind projects coming in between $100 and $140 per megawatt-hour — 50% to 150% more expensive than electricity from new natural gas combined-cycle plants, which typically deliver power for $60–$80/MWh.
That gap widens dramatically once we account for the real world.
Wind is intermittent. When the wind doesn’t blow, electricity has to come from somewhere else. Atlantic offshore wind blows about half the time, depending on location. That means either building and maintaining expensive battery storage systems or keeping backup natural gas plants on standby. Paying double rarely gets included in the rosy headlines about offshore wind — once for on-demand natural gas and again for part-time offshore wind. That’s expensive.
Trump clearly understands this basic economic reality. Why force massive investments into high-cost, weather-dependent power when unsubsidized natural gas and oil projects deliver cheaper, dispatchable electricity and stronger returns? The only reason for this stupid economic decision is climate ideology. Conventional energy still offers far better profits without the endless stream of taxpayer subsidies required to prop up offshore wind. That’s why moving this near billion dollars to more profitable, unsubsidized American natural gas is a win for the company and the U.S.
They could have taken this investment anywhere in the world, but it is staying here, adding to American energy dominance.
The biggest victory in this deal isn’t the refund itself — it’s the permanent removal of these two leases from the map. TotalEnergies has now committed not to build offshore wind anywhere in the U.S. That is a direct win for reliable, affordable electricity and a clear signal that the era of forcing expensive green mandates is ending.
Even some Democrats are starting to admit the same truth. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul (because she wants to get re-elected) recently proposed delaying key provisions of the state’s Climate Act. Pushing back greenhouse gas reduction rules and acknowledging that the original timelines had become “costly and unattainable.”
If even deep-blue New York is quietly hitting the brakes, the rest of the country should take note. For years, they have been telling us wind and solar power are cheap and will lower our electric rates. In reality, adding them increases our electric rates — like adding a part-time, unreliable car increases your car payments, maintenance, and insurance costs without replacing your full-time, reliable car.
The mainstream media’s refusal to report this accurately is revealing. Rather than acknowledge a pragmatic decision that protects consumers from higher bills and grid instability, many outlets chose to frame the story as Trump favoring fossil fuels over “green energy” by spending taxpayer dollars buying TotalEnergies out, rather than refunding the fee they paid to sell inflated subsidized, part-time electricity.
In reality, this was a straightforward business transaction: return the lease money, cancel the projects and let the capital flow to energy sources that work.
Reliable, affordable electricity is not a partisan luxury; it is an economic and national security necessity. By refunding the original lease payments and redirecting investment away from expensive offshore wind, the Trump administration delivered a clear win-win for American families, businesses, and energy security.
Frank Lasee is a CFACT Sr. Policy Analyst.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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