US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

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US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

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Comments (565)

saagarjha
> Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement posted on X that Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense and not one dependent on "costly subsidies".I agree. This is why we are building offshore wind and not subsidizing fossil fuels, right?
zmmmmm
I read up recently on the history of the fall of the roman empire and it was fascinating how eerily similar it was to the current state of the US. Overwhelmed by corruption and wars they make stupider and stupider decisions on ever larger scales, ever more frequently. And the population grows ever more cynical, eventually opting for authoritarianism before eventually the center can't hold any more and it all collapses in on itself.Funnily enough, the most striking part was the pure stupidity of a lot of it - seems so strange, but every day it seems I hear another really stupid story and think ... huh, maybe it really can be like that.
chewbacha
Parts of the world are literally on fire but the US is redirecting money to halt renewables and towards gas.The demand for energy is higher than ever due to AI data centers, but I guess the next model is more important than a habitable environment.
juntoalaluna
Insane.Over the last year, wind - mostly offshore - has generated more than 35% of electricity here. Gas is down to 27%. It's really, really good. And it looks cool.
satvikpendem
Meanwhile China is becoming entirely energy independent and electrifying their economy. I don't understand how the US doesn't see that they won't be top dog forever especially in this multipolar age.
bsenftner
The USA is governed by evil people, and the people of the nation are too stupid and expecting someone else to stop them. Plain as day light.
eigenspace
Hopefully they take the money and use to to build more wind turbines in Europe I guess.Absolutely shameful what the USA has become.
ebri
I wish I had not read this. I am not kidding when I say this is ruining my day thinking about. One thing is they ruin our times. But they are in the game of ruining the rest of time for humankind, too.
r0b05
This is beyond my understanding. They are actually paying to stop society from advancing.
botanrice
I have either learned to tune it all out or have been worn down of all the terrible news. But of all the terriblew news to come from this administration, this kind of thing guts me the most :(There is really no way around this, no silver lining. After years of working to get these programs implemented, to have the admin just willy-nilly spend money (what money!?!) to have them STOP. It hurts man.
glaslong
Quick! Back to the other thread! I've spotted somewhere DOGE could recoup $1.2B
inigyou
Can I also threaten to build an offshore wind project if they don't pay me $1.2 billion?
phyzix5761
> Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement posted on X that Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense and not one dependent on "costly subsidies".Isn't the $1.2B deal a subsidy for conventional gas?
WarmWash
Just a hypothetical...Building new infra will extend beyond trumps term, so it's possible they do "planning" for 2 years, new admin comes in, and they abandon the plan and go back to putting the money in wind.
addaon
I am available to not build wind turbines at a substantial discount.
bekimbacaj
Wind turbines were never meant to produce electricity but to bankrupt the world economy. Back in 2K one turbine installation cost was 2 million euros. That one turbine can never generate that much electricity so to pay your investment. Not counting the maintenance astronomical costs.
thelastgallon
Also,> The administration signed a similar $129bn (£96bn) agreement with Charlotte-based Duke Energy last month in exchange for the termination of the company's offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area.
wookmaster
It's really depressing to know my own taxes are going to shit like this and feel so helpless to stop it.
ChrisRR
You would think that the US would be all for energy that reduces its reliance on the far east, regardless of the climate change benefit
bluGill
If you are in the US make sure you write your congressman about this. Elections are coming up in a couple months and if they see this as an issue they will ensure something happens. There is already suspicion that the Democrats will win the house (which doesn't take too many districts to turn - this commonly would happen anyway), even a republican in a "safe seat" is scared.
kingleopold
Energy lobby in the USA is incredible. Maybe the best one? They have direct power too
ttul
2028, everyone. Hang in there.
klamann
RWE is the biggest producer of energy from lignite in Germany, which causes massive emissions even when compared to burning black coal, oil and gas. Lignite used to be really important for Germany because it has almost no reserves of oil and gas that can be accessed with traditional methods, but Germany has huge natural gas reserves that can be accessed with hydraulic fracturing. Of course, fracking is illegal in Germany, so we keep burning lignite instead, which is so much worse. Mind you, I'm not arguing that fracking is the future, we need to decarbonize the entire energy sector, but we could do so much better with the cards that we were dealt.So the lignite-burning energy dinosaur from Germany accepting a billion dollar bribe to divest resources from clean energy into fossil fuels is totally in character for that company. Shame on them.
minraws
Wait halting energy projects when energy is so scares for data centers? Couldn't US just have handed it over to some US Big Tech? I am not in US but why pay to "not" do something like building infra.
alsetmusic
I can't believe how stupid the world has become. At least my young niece and nephew will have terrible air to breathe after I'm gone. Next, let's pay people to detonate nuclear bombs next to our homes.
gehsty
We need to be careful in not throwing the babies out with the bath water - the fees paid for the leases for these projects were so high that the projects would not be economically viable in the first place. The developers are probably doing back flips behind closed doors that they have exited these positions without major financial impairments.This does not mean that renewables or offshore wind should not be built it just means that the regime around how sites are awarded, and how power purchase contracts are made need to be reworked.A lot of the world is struggling with this (recently UK re-tendered for Mona lease area with much more favourable conditions than r4 initial lease).Generally speaking I think the best approach would be to have almost zero / nominal lease fee, then have a competitive auction around a two sided CFD - if the market price is below the strike price the state makes up the difference, if the market price is above the strike price the excess goes back to the state.
neom
In case anyone is wondering why he hates wind so much, it stared in 2011:Donald Trump pledges 'any legal means' fight against windfarm. US tycoon saying proposed offshire turbines will 'compromise' golf resort – and ruin his sea view: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/05/donald-trump-l...Donald Trump continues to battle Scottish offshore windfarm plans. In his second letter to Alex Salmond, the businessman said the turbines would have a negative impact on Scottish tourism: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/28/donald-t...
ssl-3
Please always vote.Thank you. :)
micw
I wonder how Americans feel to see that their elected president takes tax money to forcefully destroy the planet and our kid's future :-(
pickleglitch
This is so colossally stupid, even by MAGA standards. We're literally spending billions to make things worse, because apparently any form of renewable energy makes the frogs gay or some stupid shit.
iammjm
Wow what a great value on those $1.2B for the taxpayers!
firtoz
Is the policy now to "harvest whatever we can ASAP" without any regard or consideration for the future or the environment?
0xfedcafe
"RWE said that it will now reinvest the sum into conventional gas projects, including $900m (£669m) in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal project in Louisiana.""Trump has sought to boost government support for fossil fuels after campaigning for the presidency under the slogan "drill, baby, drill"."That's insane, even though half of Republican supporters believe in climate change, and almost all Democratic voters do too. I can understand cutting government spending on the transition to green energy when projects are unprofitable, but what is the point of cutting it for profitable ones? If I'm not mistaken, energy firms like RWE are even threatened with lawsuits if they continue building wind turbines. Other coal investments are even more insane.
mike_hock
Great article for April 1st! No, wait. It's August 7th. Wat.
greenleafone7
> "We welcome RWE's agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation's energy security,".We do live in a dystopia don't we?
jjice
Is there any way to view our consistent destruction of green energy products in the last few years as anything other than hostile towards the majority of people purely to have a handful of people profit on cost of gas?
rsynnott
This is, I suppose, what you get when you elect a guy who went bust running a casino. So much winning.
ericyd
At least we finally answered the Mad Max question "Who killed the world?"
seydor
We found trump's achilles heel. I demand a trillion to shut down my solar
aslkalska
did the onion just take over the BBC, what's going on right now ?
linux2647
> dangerous to wildlifeIs this claim substantive at all?
segmondy
You can't make this ish up. In the era of AI when we need as much energy as possible, this admin is pulling this ridiculous stunt. Yeah, I'm not wagering that USA wins the AI race.
ChoGGi
> Days after his return to office, he said "we're not going to do the wind thing" and called them "big, ugly windmills" that were dangerous to wildlife.And coal?
qwertytyyuu
Do they hate green energy that much?
Danox
Dumb, Dumb Dumb….
shrubble
They bought back the leases; how much did the lease cost originally, and how much work was done on the project? Those are the only important questions
yunwal
At what point is the correct response to just stop paying federal taxes?
kashnote
I thought I misread the title at first. I assume we're going to pay labs to stop doing cancer research next?
Gabrys1
I conducted a fun experiment.Prompted an AI this:It's year 2005, and you're an AI on an alien planet. you get a piece of news from the future from a planet called Earth. Tell me what you understand from the text and what you think about it: (then pasted the article text)
lorreyfum
Offshore wind kills the jet stream and creates climate change.
darkstar999
Can a lawsuit stop this absolutely ridiculous deal?
Havoc
Can the US please keep their bad decisions within their borders...
hooo
We need more energy. We should be doing this, gas, nuclear, solar. Not either or.
Devasta
If they want to pay me to not build wind farms, I'll not build them for half that.
whh
Take that $1.2bn. Invest it. When this moronic administration is gone, use it to build more renewable energy infrastructure.
tiberius_p
Big Oil getting what they paid for.
KSteffensen
Why does Doug Burgum need to underscore the fact that the RWE investment is 'voluntary'?
pvaldes
Punishment for US will continue until more jail improves.
wg0
Man - What exactly are these people?
dgellow
Clown administration, there is nothing else to say. It’s completely captured by grifters at that point
hnd9q09qk4
Ha, been there
cestith
Idiot president of a country where over 10% of power generated in 2025 was with wind says any country with wind turbines (he calls them windmills) is a loser country. Film at 11.
sri9s
what will replace the wind projects?
mikkom
This is Dr. Evil level stuff
qsera
How much wind power can we extract before we disrupt the global wind circulation and thus the climate regulation by winds?Is no one worried about this?
MariusGjerd
take a look at what Spain is doing. diversifying the energy system is needed
sensanaty
It's just so blatantly and absurdly evil for literally no reason. It's a cartoon villain type of plan, the absurdity of it leaves me at a true loss for words
numbers_guy
Why are they scared shitless of wind power? What's the deal? I don't get it. Like, they seem to be more determined to stop wind power than solar power. Why?
kibwen
The US continues to cede the energy revolution to China.
davexunit
Can't have wind power. Can't have bike lanes. Can't have trains. Can't have healthcare. Love this country!
softwaredoug
To be clear, this isn’t wind power currently under construction. It’s proposed future wind power with leases being planned. Trump has largely failed to stop the nearly complete projects in New England, New York, and Virginia.Still short sighted and stupid, of course.
ModernMech
"US strikes..."Oh God, what now, we've finally bombed Cuba?"...$1.2B deal to pay..."Oh thank God!"...halt offshore wind projects"God damn it.
blondie9x
We are outraged. We know we are nearly the climate abyss. We see the changes all around us. What are we going to do to collectively to change course? To right the ship?I wrote a book on the issue. I think the next best thing we can do is work together to amplify our voices to the point ignoring us is no longer politically convenient.https://sustainedminimalist.com/book
neuronic
As a German I am highly confused by US actions. America is sabotaging its own economic future, demonizing independent renewable natural energy sources (you don’t need to import wind or sun) and Mr. „art of the deal“ is even paying us for it.
christkv
Offshore wind projects when you have tons and tons of empty land always seemed weird to me. The cost, logistics, reduced life of the installations, disruptions to the ecosystems and potential production issues with winter storms and other extreme weather events.
newswasboring
So in short a company was servicing power demand in a low pollution way. Then American government gave them money so they can instead service the same demand while causing more pollution.Just... Why? To protect a few hundred jobs in America? They could have just given a small portion of that money to these workers and they would stop complaining about job loss. 1.2 Billion is a big number.
ulfw
Every single day it's getting stupider and stupider with the NewUSA
johnea
Leave to the idiot cheato to be #1!Nobody else ever spent this much money to NOT have cheap power 8-/
yablak
Barf
jklowden
The next time, your libertarian friend mutters “Solyndra”, tell him at the most Solyndra cost the federal government 1/2 billion dollars, not the many billions Trump is spending to cancel wind projects.
metalman
my guess is that this project will be quickly relocated somewhere else in a double loose for the US, but then may very well prove to illegal in any number of violations of US law, triggering further confusion and unplanned costs for US tax payers. it's a triumphalist celebration of anti logic
titaniumrain
this is the stupidest thing ever. literally this administration cancels the contract and compensates german company... omg
dmje
Literally setting fire to the world because the US government is rammed full of corruption and oil cronies. Meanwhile everything is fine for the handful of billionaires who benefit from this shit. Absolutely sickening.
phplovesong
The madness continues. No one else is to blame other than the american zeros who made this hell to continue this long.
TrackerFF
The challenge is that you're not dealing with rational people. The big dog in the White House is a imbecile of the highest order, and everyone is doing everything in their power to appease him. It is a unwinnable situation as long as Trump is POTUS.
ck2
November can't come soon enough, this administration is beyond disgustingThey are literally a non-stop crime-spree against humanityBut if the Dems don't get 52 in the Senate absolutely nothing will change and might get even worse, likely much worse
petesergeant
One of my guiltier pleasures is reading r/Conservative to see which knots they're tying themselves in today defending some of his more insance ideas. In the unlikely event this surfaces up beyond some rage-bait culture war story they've found on Breitbart, I will enjoy reading their thoughts on why this is 4d chess††: in fairness to them, they are almost uniformly opposed to Trump's adventurism in Iran and mostly not supportive of the Jan 7th slush-fund, and will call out both when pressed
dathinab
is it just me or does that seems to be a decision driven fully by a personal dislike of wind energy without having actually run the numbers, or in other words the art of a deal isn't thatlike yes there was binding commitment to RWE getting some level of subsidies, hence he had to "pay them of" around the amount of profit they have likely list, and probably morebut... compared to not paying that much more in subsidies _and_ getting more electricity out of it which the US seem to currently be quite tight one this seems to be a terrible bad deal---EDIT: Sorry for the rant below, it's just pretty annoying how dishonest non fact based politics has been becoming where I live:furthermore you can stop future subsidies, so if wind energy is as "fake" as he claims this is something RWE would be stuck with not them, even if it drive them bankrupt it wouldn't be a USA problem (and more a German one)so the only way this deal makes sense is if you a) hate wind energy and want it cone irrationally b) know it actually works and as such would "stay around" for sure (or if you really really really care about birds, no way this is true for Trump)(And also practically it already has proven that off shore wind farms can work profitable, so b, isn't really a question. But I guess if you have a president who says all the wind farms in China are fake for show while China produce roughly as much wind energy as all of the EU together then sure you can't except logic).In general the amount of nonsense you hear when it comes to the topic of renewable energies is pretty crazy both in how people "proof how bad it is" .. based on early technology from well over 20+ years ago, systematically ignoring relevant components of a complete solution, pretending certain already in-use technologies don't exist and don't make sense etc. To ignoring issues with whatever technology they favor and often comparing wrongly calculated "non subsidized" renewable prices with "highly subsidized" non renewable prices. Don't get me wrong it also is done the other way around. But at least where I live, that direction of propaganda isn't really relevantly used while the other direction is spread everywhere non stop (while also pretending that any honest calculation is supposedly "faked" because it doesn't fit their world view).
shevy-java
Now people understand why Merz is so obedient to Trump: USA always pays Germany handsomely. Canadians understood Trump being a problem. German taxpayers also understand this. It is german politicians who consistently act against the people in Germany here; Merz is just doing this very shamelessly and obviously, while also insulting germans as "lazy bums" (https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2026-07/friedrich-me... - here he claims to never have insulted Germans as that, but prior statements contradict this). There is a reason why more than 70% (!!!!) of germans oppose Merz now. https://ip-quarterly.com/en/troubled-merz-faces-crucial-elec...Being so obedient to Mr. Trump, who in turn now faces allegation of being more involved than was previously already known with regards to Epstein's sexy islands, is a lose-lose situation Mr. Merz. USA paying german companies to abandon green energy plans, also ties into that. If Merz would have something called a spine he would not be so addicted to the money and instead reject the USA trying to influence Europeans and Germans negatively here. Because that money is ultimately bribery money for RWE. Shame on RWE as well.
cyanclouds
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gyanchawdhary
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redsocksfan45
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db48x
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summarybot
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xkcd1963
And here I'm saying again NAFO peps live in a bubble
cloudie78
Why the flying fuck are we still LARPing with toy projects like this shit?1.2B gives you a 1-1.5GW nuclear power station that runs at 90% capacity 24/7 365 (minus occasional maintanance and refuling) day or night, wind or no wind.
Incipient
I fully understand why power generation is subsidised - however honesty I feel if the govt is subsidising it, they should get a cut of the profits too.I also believe in a free market, and power should be subsidised equally per MW (MWh maybe?) this takes the politics out of a structural necessity. If you want to push a political agenda - great - but do it on political topics.
firesteelrain
US has absurdly large domestic energy resources like gas reserves, coal reserves, uranium, and thermal energy infrastructure.Then, there is the supply chain argument: the specialized turbines, components, vessels and manufacturing chains are manufactured overseas and imported to support Wind. RWE is itself German. It’s good to reduce dependence on foreign supply chains.Fishing and maritime was also cited as a concern.Onshore Wind is used (see New Mexico). Offshore Wind is a harder sell.Gas/nuclear/geothermal is a better investment for the US than Offshore Wind.