New York Construction Report staff writer
Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced this week that New York is leading a coalition of six other states in a lawsuit challenging what they describe as the unlawful cancellation of a major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York.
The lawsuit targets a March 2026 agreement between the Trump administration and French energy company TotalEnergies, which the coalition argues effectively trades taxpayer dollars for the dismantling of a major clean energy project. Under the deal, the administration agreed to cancel two offshore wind leases and provide nearly $1 billion in federal payments, while TotalEnergies committed to abandoning offshore wind development in the United States, increasing investments in oil and gas, and refraining from future U.S. offshore wind projects.
At the center of the dispute is the Attentive Energy offshore wind project, a subsidiary venture of TotalEnergies’ planned development arm Attentive Energy. The project would have been built on a lease purchased in 2022 for $795 million in what was then the highest-grossing offshore energy lease sale in U.S. history. If completed, it was expected to deliver clean electricity directly to New York City, power more than 700,000 homes, and generate billions of dollars in long-term economic benefits.
The lawsuit also references the role of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which the states say justified the cancellation on national security grounds after years of prior federal review and approval. The coalition argues that no legally required findings were made before terminating the lease and that the decision violates federal law governing offshore energy development.
“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,” Governor Hochul said. “Attorney General James and I will continue to aggressively fight back against Donald Trump’s overt and never-ending hostility toward offshore wind, including his unlawful use of the most powerful office in the world to get private companies like TotalEnergies to bow to his will.”
Attorney General Letitia James said the administration is “once again trying to kill clean energy projects and destroy good-paying jobs for New Yorkers,” adding that the deal “cooked up a sham” to redirect investment away from offshore wind and toward fossil fuel development. She warned that the cancellation threatens more than a thousand union jobs and would deprive New Yorkers of affordable clean energy.
