by Alex Brown, Rhode Island Current
September 22, 2026
An eight-state coalition filed lawsuits Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s payments to private companies to cancel offshore wind leases, escalating an ongoing legal battle over the government spending billions of dollars to block wind projects.
Attorneys general from eight East Coast states are suing the feds over the buyouts of two offshore wind leases, under which the Trump administration pledged to pay developers Bluepoint Wind and Invenergy $1.4 billion to abandon their projects. Those projects were slated to be built off the coast of New York and New Jersey.
Under the agreements with federal agencies, the companies will reinvest the funds into oil and gas projects elsewhere in the country.
The lawsuits were joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Many of the states are already part of an existing lawsuit, filed in June, challenging the buyout of a separate project, also in waters off New York and New Jersey.
California has filed its own pair of lawsuits, one last month and one Tuesday, contesting the buyout of leases off the state’s Pacific coast.
In total, the Trump administration has agreed to pay more than $4 billion to energy companies in exchange for relinquishing a dozen leases for offshore wind projects.
“This Administration is paying developers to abandon building new sources of energy at a time when our grid needs more power to meet demand and residents need relief from high electricity prices,” New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Wind energy creates well-paid jobs and reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. The president cannot redirect public funds to make unauthorized investments in oil and gas simply because he favors the fossil fuel industry.”
The lawsuits take aim at the Trump administration’s use of the Judgment Fund, a permanent appropriation created by Congress for the payment of court judgments in cases won against the federal government, to buy out the leases. The taxpayer-funded account, Davenport said, is “meant to settle genuine claims arising from actual or imminent litigation against the federal government.”
The attorneys general argue that the settlements violate multiple federal laws, including the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Judgment Fund Act. The states are asking the court to strike down the settlements and restore the leases.
One lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The other was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
Many East Coast states have set ambitious goals for offshore wind, and they’ve been counting on pending projects to meet their fast-growing power demands. Some state leaders say it will be nearly impossible to meet clean energy targets without a robust offshore wind sector.
President Donald Trump has long been a critic of wind power, and offshore wind in particular. He has used nearly every tool at his disposal to block new projects and stop work on existing projects.
Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Rhode Island Current, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
