As a fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran drives up global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration has announced it will pay French energy major TotalEnergies $1bn to kill plans to construct wind farms off the US east coast. The deal is the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry, which has faced repeated disruptions to multi-billion-dollar projects under Donald Trump. The US president has said he finds wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient, and his administration has moved to increase domestic fossil fuel production. After states and developers filed lawsuits, courts ruled that each wind project should be able to proceed. One of those offshore wind farms, the Vineyard Wind project, which sits off Massachusetts’ coast, completed construction this month.

Source: The Guardian March 24, 2026 04:55 UTC