UTILITIES
Elizabeth Klein Former Director Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Doug Burgum Interior Secretary US Government
Sam Salustro SVP of Policy
& Market Affairs The Oceantic Network
What this means for Americans For TotalEnergies, a company that exported 19 million tonnes of US LNG in 2025 alone, pivoting from offshore wind into gas and oil is not exactly a stretch. The company’ s integrated fossil fuel portfolio made it uniquely wellplaced to offer the administration exactly what it wanted in exchange for the reimbursement, something critics note that many pure-play renewable developers simply cannot do. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum offered a robust defence of the deal.“ Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” he said.
But that framing has drawn pushback from several energy analysts and former officials. Elizabeth Klein, former Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under the Biden administration, warned that scrapping the New York project in particular – a region already facing an acute electricity shortage – was deeply counterproductive.
“ For the current administration to be cutting that off makes no sense at all,” she said.
The offshore wind industry has been equally blunt. Sam Salustro, SVP of Policy & Market Affairs at the Oceantic Network, described the payment as political theatre at consumers’ expense.
“ Paying to remove affordable, homegrown energy out of the equation leaves American consumers struggling to pay their electricity bills,” he said.
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