The Trump administration has agreed to buy back another energy company’s U.S. offshore wind leases for four more wind projects, bringing the total amount spent on these agreements to nearly $2.6 billion. Chicago-based Invenergy will end its four offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements of lease fees totaling $765 million.

Redirecting Funds to Fossil Fuels

The company will invest that money in natural gas and geothermal ventures that can be built more quickly instead. This move is part of the administration’s strategy to stop offshore wind farms and redirect the money to fossil fuel projects. Invenergy, North America’s largest privately held independent power producer, has four offshore leases that were very early in development.

Invenergy says it’s focused on energy projects that can move forward today. The company left the door open to reentering the offshore wind industry in the future. Daniel Runyan, senior vice president for development at Invenergy, said the company will deploy additional capital into projects that can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline and meet customer demand while continuing to evaluate opportunities as market conditions evolve.

Background

Invenergy had already canceled the largest of the four leases, Leading Light Wind off New Jersey’s coast, in November due to challenges with the supply chain, equipment, and vendors, and changing regulatory requirements. The other leases were off the coasts of Maine and California. The company has a large portfolio of projects other than offshore wind that produce electricity without warming the planet, including about 125 land-based wind farms operating and in construction, more than 60 solar and nearly 30 battery storage projects developed, and many more that it’s actively planning and building.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.