US to pay German energy giant RWE billions to scrap wind farm plans

The administration of US President Donald Trump has struck a deal with German energy company RWE, under which the American side will compensate the company for abandoning plans to build offshore wind farms near the coasts of California and Louisiana. RWE announced the agreement in a statement.

"After careful analysis, we have concluded that there is no viable permitting pathway for these projects in the US in the foreseeable future," the company said. RWE intends to terminate its lease agreements for the offshore sites designated for wind farms in both states.

Money to flow into gas projects

The German company has pledged to reinvest the compensation it receives from US authorities into gas extraction and processing projects. RWE will channel $900 million of that sum into building a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana. Overall, the company plans to invest around €17 billion — roughly 413 billion Czech crowns — in US energy production over the next six years.

Trump vs. the "ugly windmills"

Donald Trump has spent years openly mocking wind energy, calling turbines "big, ugly windmills" that harm nature and kill birds, eagles in particular. This week he declared that "all countries with windmills are a disgrace." The president, who campaigned under the slogan "Drill, baby, drill," is pushing to expand government support for fossil fuel extraction.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense rather than one dependent on "costly subsidies." "We welcome the deal with RWE and its voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation's energy security," he added.

Not the first such deal

This is not the first agreement of its kind reached by the Trump administration. Last year, the US struck a similar deal with French company TotalEnergies, which agreed to redirect its investments away from wind farms and toward building a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas and expanding oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

A month ago, the administration signed a comparable $129 million agreement (roughly 2.7 billion crowns) with Charlotte-based Duke Energy, which dropped its plans to build offshore wind farms near the coast of North Carolina.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz