The California Attorney General’s Office has informed the Trump Administration of its intent to sue over an allegedly illegal deal to terminate an offshore wind energy lease at the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. The deal, announced last month, may violate the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Background

This isn’t the first offshore wind energy company to receive payments from the Trump Administration to not pursue their projects. In fact, a Congressional investigation alleging the violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was announced in April of this year.

The Trump Administration issued two payments totaling almost $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies from the Department of the Treasury’s Judgement Fund. The language used in each of the deals has notably similar wording, including that each of the offshore wind energy companies make investments into oil and natural gas projects as well as the use of the Judgment Fund to process the payments.

The Department of the Interior argued that the payments were refunds for a lease terminated by the federal government, but the Department of Treasury’s Judgement Fund website states that an agency may only ask for payment from the Judgment Fund if funds are not legally available to pay from the agency’s own appropriations.

Legal Questions

The difference between categorizing the payments as a refund for a lease terminated by the federal government or a subsidized investment is also a serious legal question. The Ranking Members argued that using the Judgement Fund to settle, reimburse, or to subsidize a future investment would violate the appropriations clause as it was not approved by Congress.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.