California and eight eastern US states filed three lawsuits on 22 September 2026 challenging Trump administration agreements to buy back offshore wind leases tied to investments in fossil fuel projects.
New York leads the eastern coalition, which also includes New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The states are seeking to stop federal agreements involving Bluepoint Wind and Invenergy, alleging that the transactions violate federal laws.
The federal government committed about $1.4 billion to cancel four offshore wind leases. Bluepoint Wind received $765 million to cancel an offshore wind project off New York in exchange for investment in LNG projects.
Another $653 million went to Invenergy for three offshore wind leases. In exchange, investments were directed toward natural gas plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, along with geothermal projects in the western United States.
The eastern states are asking the court to block the agreements. The coalition had already taken legal action in June over a separate Department of the Interior agreement to buy back offshore wind leases from TotalEnergies.
New York argues that the cancelled offshore wind projects were expected to generate more than $16 billion in investment in the state. Information cited from the state’s energy planners projects electricity demand will increase 8% by 2030 and 24% by 2040, partly because of economic development and new large electricity loads such as data centers.
California’s separate lawsuit concerns a $111 million agreement with Invenergy to cancel the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area lease off the Central California coast.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission allege that the administration bypassed Congress and improperly used a general fund established by Congress for lawsuit settlements to finance the lease buyback. The lawsuit also cites federal rules governing offshore energy leasing, including participation rights for affected states and limits on payments to developers when leases are cancelled.
Before filing the case, California issued a Notice of Intent to Sue that gave the Department of the Interior and Invenergy 60 days to address the alleged violations. The state followed a similar process before suing Golden State Wind and the federal government at the end of August over another lease cancellation.
The California Attorney General and California Energy Commission said offshore wind forms part of a state strategy that calls for 25 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2045. They said that amount could supply roughly 25 million homes and account for about 13% of California’s electricity supply.
The Trump administration has cited national security concerns over offshore wind turbines, including possible radar interference. The Department of Defense, however, had reviewed plans for each of the projects, according to the source article.
The eastern states have also challenged the administration’s earlier decision to halt wind leasing while conducting a review. In that case, the court found that the open-ended review violated federal process requirements and that developers were entitled to timely reviews of their applications.
