Overview
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California asking the court to void the April agreement that ended the Morro Bay lease.
- The Interior Department agreed to reimburse Golden State Wind $120 million from the Treasury’s Judgment Fund on the condition the company invest the money in oil and gas projects, and the agency cited unspecified national-security concerns for the cancellation.
- The lawsuit alleges the deal violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Judgment Fund Act and asks the court to block the administration from implementing the agreement.
- California says canceling the lease would wipe out more than $30 million in developer commitments for workforce and community programs, put over $100 million in state port and transmission readiness spending at risk, and threaten roughly 174,750 projected jobs.
- The case joins other legal and political challenges to a wider Interior push that has negotiated billions in buyouts and paused offshore-wind permitting, a shift that could reshape U.S. clean-energy and supply-chain plans.