California Threatens to Sue Interior Over Offshore Wind Deal

California filed an intent to sue the Trump administration over its recent deal with Golden State Wind LLC in which the company agreed to kill an offshore wind project lease and instead invest the money in fossil fuels.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) office, which filed the notice on behalf of the California Energy Commission, alleged in a press release Tuesday that the deal between the company and Department of the Interior goes against the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

“At a time when the country needs more reliable and sustainable power supply, the Trump Administration is busy using taxpayer money to strike backroom buyouts that make clean-energy projects disappear,” Bonta said in the press release.

The lease was for a 2-gigawatt floating offshore wind project off California’s Morro Bay. As part of its deal with the Interior Department, Golden State Wind will be able to recover around $120 million after investing the same amount of money in liquefied natural gas projects, energy infrastructure, or US fossil fuel assets. The company acquired the lease from the government in 2022 for that amount.

Filing a notice of intent to sue doesn’t guarantee a lawsuit will actually be filed. If California were to proceed with a formal lawsuit, it has to wait at least 60 days from filing its notice.

Inking deals with energy companies to kill offshore wind projects, an energy source President Donald Trump has long railed against, has become a common move by the Trump administration to try and stop the developments. Last week, the Interior Department announced a settlement with Invenergy to kill around $765 million in offshore wind leases and have the company instead put that that money toward geothermal and natural gas.

This isn’t the first move by a state to challenge those deals. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), along with attorneys general from other blue states in the northeast, sued the administration over a roughly $1 billion deal the Interior Department made with French energy company TotalEnergies SE to kill two offshore wind projects and instead invest in fossil fuels.

Bonta’s office said the California Energy Commission subpoenaed Golden State Wind last month looking for more information over its Interior Department deal. The agency also subpoenaed Invenergy over its deal with the Trump administration and requested a copy of the agreement, Bonta’s office said.

The administration’s deals with companies to nix leases for offshore wind projects stand to rumple energy plans for blue states with specific climate targets. California by 2045 aims to develop 25 gigawatts worth of offshore wind power, which would provide roughly 13% of the state’s electricity, according to Bonta’s office.