“The Trump Administration’s backroom buyout with Golden State Wind to stop offshore wind development in favor of gas and oil drilling is, unfortunately, a classic playbook for them to line the pockets of their Big Oil donors.
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The Government Has Paid Nearly $4 Billion to Kill Offshore Wind — and $900 Million of the Latest Settlement Goes Straight to a Private Equity Firm Run by a Trump Donor Who Lives Near Mar-a-Lago
August 27, 2026
On August 6–7, 2026, the Trump administration announced a $1.22 billion settlement with the German utility RWE. In exchange for the money — drawn from a federal fund — RWE gave up offshore wind leases off New York, California and Louisiana, roughly seven gigawatts of planned capacity, and agreed to reinvest the proceeds in oil, gas or nuclear "conventional energy." It was the latest in a series of buyouts, beginning with a roughly $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies in March 2026, that has now cost taxpayers close to $4 billion. On August 27, 2026, reporting revealed where most of the RWE money is going: $900 million of it will buy a stake in a Louisiana LNG project from Stonepeak, the private equity firm co-founded and run by Australian billionaire Michael Dorrell. Dorrell owns a mansion near Mar-a-Lago and gave a combined roughly $1 million to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee after the 2024 election. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, who had already called the settlements "an insane waste of taxpayer funds and a ridiculous charade that seems to be blatantly illegal," said the Stonepeak connection "now adds the stench of corruption," and said he would expand his existing investigation to cover it. The White House called the reporting "a brazen attempt to insinuate a conflict-of-interest that does not exist," and the Interior Department said "no one at the Department directed which company RWE was to invest in." The buyouts were already under scrutiny. In June 2026, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James led a seven-state lawsuit calling the arrangement a "pay-not-to-play scheme." In July 2026, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) led fourteen senators — including Schumer, Schatz, King and Heinrich — in an investigation of the deals. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called the buybacks "an enormous money pump, pulling billions of dollars out of consumers' pockets." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended them, saying Americans "deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies."
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“These fake "settlements" were already an insane waste of taxpayer funds and a ridiculous charade that seems to be blatantly illegal. This now adds the stench of corruption.
“Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can’t meet our country’s current demand.
“They are creating this enormous money pump, pulling billions of dollars out of consumers’ pockets. That’s the real story of what is going on here. There’s method here, and it’s a real scam.
“The most corrupt, lawless administration in American history is once again flouting the law. Trump is strongarming companies into taking these illegal deals and abandoning offshore wind projects. These fake settlements have now reached the tune of about $4 billion.
“These projects were poised not only to advance U.S. leadership in clean energy technology and generation capacity, but also to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state investment. Dismantling the burgeoning offshore wind industry now and creating broader uncertainty for investment in cheap, clean energy will have consequences for decades to come.
“The Trump administration is once again trying to kill clean energy projects and destroy good-paying jobs for New Yorkers.
“This pay-not-to-play scheme pressuring a foreign company to forego planned offshore wind projects in America in favor of gas and oil drilling is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.