1. THE BUYOUTS COST TAXPAYERS UP TO $3.9 BILLION TO CANCEL PROJECTS ALREADY UNDERWAY.
Since March 2026, the Administration has canceled 12 offshore wind leases through buyouts costing taxpayers up to $3.9 billion. Companies paid billions to secure these leases at competitive auctions, and their payments were deposited in the U.S. Treasury. The buyouts return that money and forfeit the future lease payments and operating fees taxpayers would have received if the projects entered production.
2. THE CANCELLED OFFSHORE WIND LEASES WOULD HAVE GENERATED ENOUGH ELECTRICITY TO POWER 6.6 MILLION HOMES.
The 12 canceled leases were expected to support projects with a combined nameplate capacity of 19.2 gigawatts (GW), enough to power 6.6 million households. These cancellations remove a future source of domestic electricity production and the revenue that would have come with it.
3. THE BUYOUTS UNDERMINE ENERGY SECURITY BY LIMITING AMERICA’S ENERGY OPTIONS.
A robust, diverse energy market benefits all Americans. Energy companies paid billions of dollars for these leases to diversify their energy portfolios. Cancelling the leases removes a planned source of domestic energy and reverses those private investment decisions.
4. THE BUYOUTS LEAVE TAXPAYERS FOOTING THE BILL FOR INVESTMENTS COMPANIES MAY HAVE ALREADY MADE.
The buyout agreements tie reimbursement of lease payments to companies abandoning their offshore wind projects and making equivalent investments in other qualifying projects. Some agreements allow investments made before the agreements were signed to count toward that requirement. For example, TotalEnergies’ $928 million refund is tied to investments that include the Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas, where the company had already invested or committed to invest long before signing the agreement. Taxpayers could therefore be reimbursing companies for existing investments rather than getting new investments in return.
5. THE ADMINISTRATION IS PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS.
Energy companies won these offshore wind leases in competitive federal auctions. Now the Administration is paying companies to abandon those projects and directing their investment toward energy sectors and specific projects it favors. These buyout agreements tie refunds to equivalent investments in conventional energy projects, including oil and gas production, liquefied natural gas, and fossil-fueled power generation. Taxpayers are footing the bill for the Administration to decide which energy industries get to compete, and which get pushed out.
