Trump Fires A New 1 Billion Dollar Missile At Offshore Wind Energy
Originally published on Forbes.com on March 23. 2026.
But renewable energies are cost-competitive and will continue to play a key role in the buildout of new power generation in the U.S.
President Trump hasn’t always been closed to wind energy. In his first term, he told his new Secretary of Energy to do for the U.S. what he had done for Texas. “Rick Perry created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as secretary of energy,” Trump said. By 2015, when Perry’s time ended as governor of Texas, wind energy was 10% of the electricity generated. By 2023, this had risen to 28%, second only to natural gas, and the highest of any state.
A New Missile Against Offshore Wind
In 2025, Trump paused five separate wind projects off the eastern U.S. shore. But lawsuits were filed, and the courts allowed these projects to continue. One of them is now supplying electricity to thousands of homes.
This week, Trump unleashed a new missile. A deal was struck between the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, and the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, to refund the money the company had spent buying leases for two offshore wind tracts. One is offshore New York, the other offshore North Carolina. The total amount is a bit short of 1 billion dollars, and the refund is taxpayer dollars.
The rest of the deal is that TotalEnergies must spend a part of the refund money to develop the Rio Grande LNG production terminal in Texas, as well as other new oil and gas projects. The rationale, according to Pouyanné, is to supply Europe with the LNG that they need, as well as providing natural gas for electricity for data centers in the U.S. It may seem like a good deal, except perhaps for the loss of potential jobs in the Carolinas, for U.S. taxpayers, and for people who believe that global warming is serious.
Why Is Trump Antagonistic To Offshore Wind?
They kill birds, they are noisy, they are unsightly, expensive, and they are unreliable sources of energy, have all been cited as reasons by Trump. The National Audubon Society has said wind turbines don’t kill as many birds as collisions with buildings. They may be noisy and unsightly, but who cares when the wind farm projects of New York and North Carolina would sit above the ocean, 47 miles and 22 miles respectively from the shoreline.
Onshore renewables (solar, wind, and grid batteries) are now the cheapest sources of power, and the quickest to install. Energy investment by technology confirms this. In 2025, China, the U.S., and the EU dominated investments, as expected. In each of the big three, renewables plus grid battery storage exceeded fossil investments.
The Price Of Electricity Will Rise Faster
The price of electricity is rising, and it will continue to do so as waves of data centers and AI come on the scene. If wind, solar, and batteries are disadvantaged in preference to expensive, almost-defunct coal power plants, or commercially unproven SMRs (small modular nuclear reactors), or advanced geothermal methods, then prices of electricity in the U.S. will rise faster. Table 1 lays this out, using the most recent LCOE data from Lazard.
Offshore wind farms are on the bubble at $70 – $157/MWh without tax credits, but are much cheaper than nuclear. Geothermal is underestimated because it’s based on just a few current geothermal projects and does not include advanced geothermal that will be expensive. The latter includes drilling and fracking in hot dry rock (one pilot plant is producing heat and expensive electricity), or drilling into very hot rock greater than 300℃ (no production yet).
In the table, onshore wind plus battery storage (BESS) and solar plus BESS are the winners, because combined cycle gas-fired turbines are delayed by serious supply chains.
How Reliable Are Wind And Solar Renewables?
The old view was that wind and solar are not reliable, or not dispatchable energy, because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. But this was before grid-scale batteries, which can store extra daytime power for nighttime use.
The Trump administration seems to be unaware of green energy success in Australia. In the state of South Australia, renewables plus batteries provided 84% of grid electricity in 2025, and this is expected to rise to 100% by 2027. South Australia’s electricity prices dropped by 30% in 4Q 2026 from 4Q a year ago. Solar, wind, and batteries anticipate that the stability and reliability of renewables will increase.
To be honest, electricity prices in South Australia have been higher than in other states for some time. One of the chief reasons is that the state relies on gas-fired peaker plants when renewable output is low. But gas is expensive, having risen by 2.5 times since 2012. Another factor is that the state has limited interconnections with other states, which means it cannot import cheaper power when its own supply is constrained.
Takeaways.
According to Lazard, “Renewables remain the most cost-competitive form of new-build generation on an unsubsidized basis (i.e., without tax subsidies). As such, renewable energy will continue to play a key role in the buildout of new power generation in the U.S.”
It is hoped that President Trump and the Secretary of Energy will come to appreciate, protect, and promote wind, solar, and battery renewables as electricity prices in the U.S. accelerate in the near future. In the longer term, advanced geothermal and SMR nuclear will surely have a role to play with strong support by the current administration, and this will help to lower electricity prices also.
Back to the state of Texas. The state is number 1 in wind energy in the U.S. and number two in solar energy after California. But here’s the kicker: 94% of new power capacity added to the Texas grid since 2020 came from renewables and batteries. It’s hard to understand why U.S. federal policy would choose to slow demonstrated success in renewables, onshore or offshore.