TotalEnergies, NextDecade, and their partners Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), GIC, and Mubadala made the final investment decision (FID) for the development of Train 4 of Rio Grande LNG (RGLNG) in September 2025.
Totally not all energies
For the settlement agreement on the French energy company’s offshore wind leases, the DOI stated that TotalEnergies would redirect capital from “expensive, unreliable offshore wind leases toward affordable, reliable natural gas projects that will provide secure energy for hardworking Americans.”
“Under this innovative agreement driven by President Donald J. Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, the American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry”, the DOI stated in its press release.
TotalEnergies said on March 23 that its own studies on these leases had shown that offshore wind developments in the U.S., unlike those in Europe, were “costly and might have a negative impact on power affordability for U.S. consumers” and that other technologies are available to meet the country’s growing demand for electricity more affordably. Hence, the company considers there is no need to allocate capital to offshore wind technology in the U.S.
The oil & gas projects in the U.S. will not only support domestic supply but also demand in Europe, according to the company, which has several gigawatt-scale offshore wind projects in Europe, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region, and was reported to also be eyeing offshore wind projects in Brazil .
FURTHER READING (OFFSHOREWIND.BIZ)
“[These agreements], under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of U.S. gas production and export. These investments will contribute to supplying Europe with much-needed LNG from the U.S. and provide gas for U.S. data center development. We believe this is a more efficient use of capital in the United States”, said Patrick Pouyanné , Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies.
For Oceantic Network, the U.S. offshore renewable energy industry organization, which has been pointing out the Trump administration’s commitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy, the news about the settlement agreement between the now-former developer of U.S. offshore wind projects and the government does not align with the country’s needs, especially in terms of the impact on consumer bills.
“After failing to shut down offshore wind through strong-arm tactics and litigation losses, the administration is now spending $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to force developers out of the market—wrapped in a false narrative about affordability, reliability, and national security”, said Sam Salustro , SVP of Policy & Market Affairs at Oceantic Network.
Salustro noted that security claims were reviewed and dismissed by multiple federal judges, and that the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Department of Defense (DOD) had repeatedly signed off on projects well before construction began.
“Offshore wind’s long-term trajectory remains secure in the U.S. as states continue to make the power source a foundational part of their energy mixture that creates good-paying local jobs. This is political theater meant to obscure the fact that offshore wind capacity is being pulled out of the pipeline when energy prices are skyrocketing, even as other offshore wind projects continue delivering reliable and affordable power to the grid. Paying to remove affordable, homegrown energy out of the equation leaves American consumers struggling to pay their electricity bills”, said Salustro.