Overview
- New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of six other state attorneys general that filed suit Tuesday in federal court in Washington asking a judge to vacate the Interior Department’s cancellation of the New York lease and the roughly $1 billion settlement with TotalEnergies’ subsidiary.
- The publicly disclosed March agreement would refund about $1 billion to TotalEnergies and conditions the payment on the company redirecting the capital into oil and gas projects rather than offshore wind.
- The complaint alleges Interior officials canceled the lease without following required procedures and argues the deal harms state economies, union jobs, electricity ratepayers and state climate goals.
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defends the settlements as returning companies’ money and says refunded sums have been invested in other U.S. energy projects while the administration has paid nearly $2 billion to end several offshore wind leases.
- Congressional Democrats and California investigators are separately probing similar cancellations, and a legal victory for the states could restore the leases, revive planned clean power capacity and reshape federal oversight of future energy settlements.