Is offshore wind energy policy ‘blowin’ in the wind?’

(Part 6 in a Series)

U.S. offshore wind energy projects had the wind knocked out of their sails with President Donald Trump’s attempts to pull the plug on the construction of offshore wind farms.

Ray Gronberg of Business North Carolina magazine reported on March 23, 2026, about the most recent “development.”

 

He wrote that TotalEnergies, based in Paris, France, “agreed with the Trump administration to give up its offshore wind lease off the North Carolina coast, along with a larger project near New York (at New York Bight).”

 

“The company says its studies showed ‘that offshore wind developments in the United States, unlike those in Europe, are costly and might have a negative impact on power affordability for U.S. consumers,’” Gronberg wrote. “Total is among the world’s largest energy companies.”

Gronberg said the settlement involves payment by the U.S. government of $928 million to compensate TotalEnergies for giving up rights to the Carolina Long Bay lease and another off the coast of New York state.

 

The Carolina Long Bay site, containing about 110,000 acres, lies roughly 22 miles offshore, south of Bald Head Island in Brunswick County. It was slated to produce enough energy to fuel about 300,000 homes.

 

Gronberg said “The New York Times reported that Total will get $133 million for giving up the North Carolina lease, with the New York project accounting for the balance.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum told reporters at a recent oil-and-gas industry conference in Houston: “The era of taxpayers subsidizing unreliable, unaffordable and unsecured energy is officially over.”

 

“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” Burgum asserted.

Gronberg noted: “President Donald Trump has shown repeated disdain for offshore wind.”

 

“The Chapel Hill-based Southeastern Wind Coalition criticized the settlement. Offshore wind is ‘a hedge against more volatile fuels like natural gas. Now is the time to be expanding our options, not taking them away,” said Katharine Kollins, the group’s president.

 

“U.S. Department of the Interior officials said the deal hinges on TotalEnergies putting the $928 million into a liquified natural gas (LNG) facility in Texas, offshore oil development nearby and into shale-gas production,” Gronberg added.

After those investments are made, the United States “will terminate the leases and reimburse the company,” they said.

Federal officials said the French company “has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.”

Liz McLaughlin of WRAL News in Raleigh said the decision to cancel Carolina Long Bay drew “sharp reactions” from energy analysts.

 

She talked to Kollins as well. “I think folks are trying to figure out how to reconcile this with the fact that we do need more electrons on the grid,” Kollins commented. “Every state right now is looking at how we can develop more energy, not how we should be taking options off the table.”

“Using nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money to remove an option for North Carolina and then require that company to invest in LNG just doesn’t feel right,” Kollins added.

McLaughlin said that North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein criticized the Trump administration for “spending nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay off a company to stop investments in the clean energy we need,” calling it “a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country.”

“The debate reflects a broader divide over how to meet growing electricity demand while keeping costs down,” McLaughlin wrote. “The federal government and industry leaders backing the deal say natural gas offers a more dependable source of power, especially as the grid faces increasing strain.”

“Part of that shift now points to LNG, which is traded on a global market,” she said. “That means prices can rise or fall based on international demand, geopolitical tensions and export levels – dynamics that do not affect wind energy.”

“The cancellation also highlights uncertainty around offshore wind development in North Carolina,” McLaughlin said. “Duke Energy, the state’s largest utility, holds a neighboring lease in the same area as Carolina Long Bay but paused development last year as it reevaluated costs and policy conditions.”

To sum up, Kollins said: “When we limit our choices, we limit our ability to control costs.”

 

Trista Talton (shown above) of the Carolina Review, published by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which is based in Carteret County, interviewed Karly Brownfield (shown below), who is senior program manager with the Southeastern Wind Coalition.  

 

Brownfield said that the agreement “feels really counterproductive” at a time when people are closely watching their energy costs at home and at the gas pump.

“It’s also completely unprecedented to take a lease payment and then refund it in exchange for investment in the natural gas industry. That has never happened before,” Brownfield said.

Katie Harris, vice president of federal affairs with the BlueGreen Alliance based in Washington, D.C., was quoted in Talton’s article, saying: “Donald Trump truly can’t leave a good thing alone. His never-ending vendetta against offshore wind shows that he either doesn’t understand the affordable energy crisis or that he just doesn’t care….”

 

Déjà vu. This whole political scenario spins us back to 1963 when legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan released his magical song “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

 

Philosophers suggested at the time that the tune was an expression of “frustration over humankind’s inability to achieve lasting harmony and stability.”

The Trump administration argues that offshore wind structures pose national security threats as their turbines could interfere with radar signals,” reported Rachel Frazin of TheHill.com, a unit of Nexstar Media Group.

 

Frazin said President Trump has voiced a longstanding disdain for wind power, saying repeatedly that “he does not want to see new wind energy projects built during his tenure.”

Clearly, Trump’s actions, including the cancellation of future leases for offshore wind farms, have significantly hampered the industry, wrote Gareth McGrath of the Wilmington Star-News.

 

 

Delays, uncertainties and political maneuvering could seriously destabilize the entire industry, especially here in North Carolina, according to some energy experts.

Building offshore wind farms is incredibly capital intensive, so investors are nervous and are likely to sit tight on the sidelines until the turbulence subsides.

 

 

The North Carolina State Ports Authority has been looking to get into the wind turbine business. In 2024, it “floated a plan to build a multi-use terminal that would support the state’s offshore wind and automotive industries at its Morehead City port,” McGrath added.

“According to an economic study, a large-scale offshore wind project could generate nearly $3.7 billion in net economic impact for North Carolina,” he said.

“With federal support for renewable energy sources looking shaky at best, it isn’t known what that might mean for states that had planned on integrating lots of offshore wind into their future energy grids as a way of increasing their clean energy footprint and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions,” McGrath wrote.

Jake Bittle of Grist, an independent media organization in Seattle, Wash., said the Trump policies related to offshore wind have had a dizzying effect on major renewable energy developers.

 

“At the same time, developers encountered a wave of opposition from fishermen’s groups…and shoreline residents concerned about their ocean views,” Bittle wrote.

It’s like the offshore wind industry was frozen in-place during 2025. “There are no large-scale projects in the pipeline,” Bittle wrote.

He shared an interesting tidbit from an energy consultant who advises offshore wind developers: “In order for someone to get a commercial gleam in their eye, you need alignment with the federal government, the state government and the market. That’s gone, and it makes projects literally impossible.”

“Industry insiders say global firms like Ørsted (of Denmark) and Equinor (of Norway) have little desire to make further investments in the U.S. market, though they’re still holding on to their federal leases in windy sections of the ocean,” Bittle wrote.