California, New York Sue Trump Administration Over Offshore Wind Lease Buybacks

Democratic attorneys general from California and New York filed lawsuits Tuesday challenging the Trump administration's efforts to buy back offshore wind leases, as the White House moves to curb wind energy development in favor of fossil fuels.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his suit targets the cancellation of a project planned off his state's coast by Chicago-based Invenergy. The administration announced in June that it would repurchase the company's U.S. offshore wind leases covering four projects on the East and West coasts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a separate coalition of seven states seeking to block both the Invenergy deal and a proposed agreement with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.

The buybacks would direct $1.4 billion in taxpayer funds to energy companies in exchange for canceling multiple projects. Overall, the administration has pledged nearly $4 billion to companies to abandon projects nationwide.

James described the deals as illegal and warned they would raise electricity bills by undermining states' capacity to meet growing energy demand.

"Americans are facing increasing energy costs because this administration would rather pay off energy companies than let us build the new power sources we need," James said in a statement. "These illegal backroom deals take money that should have gone toward lowering New Yorkers' bills and hand it to fossil fuel projects in other states."

Bonta said California, as a national and global leader on climate change, finds itself in "avoidable and unnecessary battles with our own federal government" over clean energy.

President Donald Trump has frequently criticized wind power and said his goal is to prevent any "windmills" from being built. Offshore wind generates electricity without carbon emissions, while oil, coal and natural gas release carbon pollution when burned.

Speaking at a Climate Week event in New York City, Bonta said climate action must match the scale and urgency of the problem.

"Because we have to go to court and block an unlawful action by the Trump administration each time, it takes time. It slows the process down and we know we are running out of time and we need to be urgent and aggressive," Bonta said Tuesday, shortly before Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly.

"We're still all in, in California," Bonta said. "No matter what the Trump administration does, we're going to push to participate in the climate action that is needed to meet this moment and to rise to the occasion."

Attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York's lawsuit.