Trump pays German firm $1.2 billion to abandon Humboldt offshore wind Play

The Trump administration has taken another step to strangle California’s ambitious plans for offshore wind power.

A German company will take a $1.2 billion payoff from the federal government to walk away from its right to build offshore wind turbines off New York, Louisiana and, most particularly, the Humboldt coast off northern California.

The LA Times reports this agreement is the fifth and largest such buyout this year. So far, U.S. taxpayers have spent $2.7 billion in payouts steering companies away from offshore wind and into fossil fuel projects.

California was going to use that clean energy to meet its offshore wind goals. Thousands of jobs will be lost in the economically depressed California North Coast.

The German energy company RWE was planning a fleet of floating wind turbines on federal waters 30 miles off the coast of Humboldt County. The Biden administration had granted the leases for the power project, which had the capacity for up to 1.6 gigawatts of offshore wind power.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum proclaimed: “Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can’t meet our country’s current demand.”