By Clara Hudson

New York's attorney general is leading a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge its deal that put an end to a French energy company's offshore wind projects.

As part of an agreement with the Trump administration, TotalEnergies said in March it would stop developing offshore wind projects in the U.S. and will instead invest in oil and gas production in the country. The government said the company would be paid $928 million -- the value of its offshore wind leases -- which would then be reinvested into oil and gas projects.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by attorneys general from New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Interior Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

"We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy," New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

TotalEnergies has said it won't pursue any further offshore wind leases in the U.S.

"This pay-not-to-play scheme pressuring a foreign company to forego planned offshore wind projects in America in favor of gas and oil drilling is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability to meet our energy needs, create good jobs, and help secure American energy independence while reducing emissions," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

The Trump administration has tried a number of approaches to shut down offshore wind projects. These include a pause issued late last year on the federal leases for a handful of offshore wind projects, some of which were nearly complete at the time. The energy companies have prevailed for now after a court saga where the businesses said the shutdowns cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

President Trump himself has launched tirades against offshore wind and signed an executive order against the development of such projects within his first days in office. He has said his administration "will not approve windmills" and has also called them "ugly."

The attorneys general say the cancellation of the TotalEnergies offshore wind projects will harm their states' economies, energy grids and climate goals. They say in the lawsuit that the Trump administration's deal violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, asserting that the Interior Department was required to hold a hearing and specifically find that the lease would cause serious harm.

The suit also alleges that the deal violates the Judgment Fund Act because the promised payment wasn't intended to settle a lawsuit or court judgment.

The Trump administration has said its attempts to shut down offshore wind projects are intended to protect national security.

"I know people keep saying it's ideological. It's not; there's a real national security risk," said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

TotalEnergies said at the time of its deal with the Trump administration that the costs for developing offshore wind now look too high to be worth continuing in the country, and aren't in the best interest of the U.S.

Write to Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 02, 2026 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)

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