Overview
- RWE and the U.S. Department of the Interior agreed Thursday to a $1.22 billion settlement that cancels RWE’s leases in the New York Bight and off the coasts of California and Louisiana.
- Under the deal RWE will redirect $900 million to buy an indirect 16% stake in the Louisiana LNG project and $300 million to reserve gas turbines for a planned pipeline of 15 natural-gas peaking plants.
- The RWE payment is the largest single buyout so far and brings the administration’s reported total spent on lease buybacks to roughly $3.9 billion.
- A coalition of states and advocacy groups has sued and plans to sue, arguing the Interior lacks statutory authority to reimburse competitively awarded leases and that the payouts misuse public funds.
- The settlement removes projects that had promised jobs and clean power for states such as New York and California, leaves U.S. offshore wind developers citing a lack of a permitting path, and could be reversed or trigger clawbacks if courts rule against the deals.