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California sues Trump Administration over $120 million offshore wind buyout. On Aug 31, 2026 California has sued the Trump administration over its deal to cancel a planned 2-gigawatt floating offshore wind project off the state's Central Coast, challenging the administration's increasingly aggressive strategy of paying developers to surrender federal wind leases and redirect investment toward oil and gas. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration and Golden State Wind LLC, arguing that the Department of the Interior lacked legal authority to reimburse the developer for abandoning its Morro Bay offshore wind lease. The dispute centers on an agreement announced by Interior in April under which Golden State Wind agreed to relinquish its California lease and walk away from future U.S. offshore wind development. Under the deal, Golden State Wind can recover roughly $120 million in lease payments after making an equivalent investment in U.S. oil and gas assets, energy infrastructure or Gulf Coast LNG projects. California argues the arrangement amounts to an illegal use of federal taxpayer money. According to the lawsuit, Interior plans to make the $120 million payment from the federal Judgment Fund, which is generally used to pay judgments and settlements against the U.S. government. California says there was no underlying lawsuit or legitimate legal claim to settle and accuses the administration of creating a settlement mechanism simply to cancel the lease. "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," Bonta said. "Let's be clear: California will continue to aggressively fight back against the Trump administration's outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars to abandon offshore wind investments that could have delivered union-paying jobs and reliable clean energy to Californians," he added. Golden State Wind acquired the 80,418-acre Morro Bay lease during the Biden administration's first California offshore wind auction in December 2022. The lease was intended to support development of a roughly 2 GW floating offshore wind project. California says the project also included more than $30 million in commitments for workforce training, supply-chain development and benefits for local communities, including fishermen's associations. The state has separately invested more than $100 million preparing ports, transmission systems and other infrastructure for a future offshore wind industry. California's offshore wind strategy calls for developing as much as 25 GW by 2045, with ports including Long Beach and Humboldt expected to play major roles in staging and assembling floating wind turbines. The lawsuit argues that Interior violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs the department's authority over offshore energy leases, as well as the Judgment Fund Act. California is asking a federal court to invalidate the agreement and block the administration from carrying it out. The challenge opens a new legal front in the Trump administration's effort to dismantle much of the U.S. offshore wind development pipeline. Earlier this year, federal courts repeatedly rejected administration efforts to stop several offshore wind projects already under construction on national security grounds. Since then, Interior has increasingly turned to negotiated settlements with developers whose projects have not yet reached construction. Golden State Wind was one of two such agreements announced in April. Bluepoint Wind agreed to surrender its New York Bight lease while Global Infrastructure Partners committed up to $765 million to a U.S. LNG facility. Those deals followed a roughly $928 million agreement with TotalEnergies to relinquish offshore wind leases and redirect investment toward LNG and upstream oil and gas. The strategy has continued to expand. Earlier this month, RWE agreed to surrender offshore wind leases in the New York Bight, California and Louisiana as part of a $1.22 billion settlement with the federal government. RWE simultaneously announced plans to invest $900 million for an indirect 16% stake in the Louisiana LNG export project and reserve $300 million worth of gas turbine capacity. Duke Energy, Invenergy and other developers have also reached agreements to abandon offshore wind leases as the administration pushes investment toward conventional energy. The cancellations are steadily shrinking what was once expected to become a major new maritime market in the United States. Floating wind development off California in particular was expected to require substantial investments in specialized vessels, port infrastructure, fabrication facilities, feeder barges and other parts of the domestic maritime supply chain. "Offshore wind presents an opportunity for our state to scale up an innovative new clean energy industry that reduces pollution while providing new jobs and investment for the people of our state," California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said. "We will not let the Trump administration's reckless actions turn back the clock," he added. "California's clean energy future is worth fighting for. See you in court." Editorial Standards · Corrections · About gCaptain Subscribe for Daily Maritime Insights Sign up for newsletter and never miss an update - trusted by our 105,586 members

Equinor Buys 87.71 percent interest in Lackawanna Energy Center for $940M. Norwegian energy company Equinor has agreed to acquire 87.71 percent of the Class A shares in Lackawanna Energy Center, a 1,483 MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Pennsylvania, from funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners, part of BlackRock. Equinor (NYSE: EQNR) will pay $940 million, subject to a potential purchase-price reduction at closing. The acquisition expands Equinor's exposure to PJM, the largest wholesale electricity market in the U.S., and complements its existing natural gas position in the Appalachian Basin. Lackawanna was developed by Invenergy, a privately held developer, owner and operator of power infrastructure. The plant is among the largest and most efficient gas-fired facilities serving PJM, which supplies electricity to nearly 70 million consumers across 13 states. The facility benefits from access to natural gas supplies and is located near Equinor's Appalachian Basin gas position, which produces more than 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day for the northeastern U.S. Invenergy AMPCI Thermal Power LLC will continue to manage and operate the facility. General Atlantic Taps JPMorgan to Lead Revived IPO Plans General Atlantic confidentially filed for an IPO in December 2023 ,but subsequently delayed its plans amid market volatility. To read the entire story, you must be logged in. Mark Cuban-Backed FORT Robotics to Go Public in $557M SPAC Deal FORT described the combined business as the first publicly traded company principally focused on the safe and scalable deployment of physical AI. To read the entire story, you must be logged in. Future Standard Invests in KDC KDC is an infrastructure platform focused on helping companies develop and scale capital-intensive projects. To read the entire story, you must be logged in. Point 41-Backed Summit Restoration Group Buys Capital Construction The acquisitions add an integrated mitigation-to-rebuild provider serving residential and commercial customers in Virginia. To read the entire story, you must be logged in.

Texas wins again: long-term investors pour billions under Abbott's data center standards with skilled trades commitments. Meta to build a $10 billion-plus, one-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso by is licensed under Governor Abbott's data center guidelines require operators to detail their power plans, protect Texas water resources, and shield surrounding communities. Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas - Score another one for the Texas model of doing things. Just days after Meta and BlackRock finalized a landmark venture to build a $10 billion-plus, one-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso, Governor Abbott announced that Meta, along with several other major companies, will comply with his recently announced data center standards, proving once again that when leaders set clear rules and get government out of the way, private capital shows up ready to build, hire, and foot its own bills. Governor Abbott's data center guidelines require operators to detail their power plans, protect Texas water resources, and shield surrounding communities. The Governor said his framework establishes clear guardrails so data centers "conserve our water, respect our neighborhoods, and pay their own way," to ensure costs are never passed on to Texas families. Since the Governor issued his directives, data center developers across the state, including Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, have announced plans to comply. Texas is concurrently attracting the AI buildout while writing the playbook for other states on how to do so responsibly. President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge The Texas approach mirrors leadership at the top. Meta was one of seven leading technology companies to initially sign President Donald J. Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the White House in March. Under the Pledge, companies commit to build, bring, or buy the new power generation their data centers require and to cover the full cost of grid infrastructure upgrades. President Trump has said the arrangement means prices for American communities "will not go up, but in many cases, will actually come down." Last month, the White House announced the Pledge had expanded to more than 200 additional utilities, developers, and states, covering 80 percent of all power delivered to American homes and businesses. A Blue-Collar Boom in the Borderland The El Paso campus is Meta's third data center in Texas but is already one of the state's largest construction projects, employing more than 2,300 workers onsite with over 4,000 skilled trade workers expected at peak. Once operational, the facility will support more than 300 permanent jobs. Eddie Trevizo, the business manager of IBEW Local 960, which represents El Paso Electric workers, wrote that "the impact on the union workforce has been tremendous," with some IBEW locals doubling in size and a construction phase long enough for its workers to finish entire apprenticeships. The skilled trades pipeline is also expanding. BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners and the AI Infrastructure Partnership signed a memorandum of understanding this week with North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to connect a pipeline of more than 3 million skilled tradespeople, including electricians, pipefitters, and ironworkers, to AI infrastructure projects. This builds on BlackRock's Future Builders initiative, which is investing nearly $30 million to train more than 12,000 Texas electricians over three years. That's what the AI revolution looks like on the ground: welding rigs, hard hats, and family-sustaining paychecks for Texas workers. Paying Their Own Way on Power and Water Meta worked with El Paso Electric to plan its energy needs and pay the full cost of the power and infrastructure the campus requires, so El Paso consumers aren't left holding the bag. The company is supporting more than 5,000 megawatts of new clean and reliable energy projects in Texas. On water, Meta has pledged to restore 200 percent of the water its El Paso data center consumes back to local watersheds, and it pays the full cost of its water and wastewater service. The company is also funding El Paso Water's AguaCares program to help support families in need with their water bills. Clear standards. Private investment. Ratepayers protected. Workers hired. That's the Texas Model. With Governor Abbott's guardrails and President Trump's pledge in place, El Paso is a strong example for the rest of America of how Texas makes sure the AI era gets built right. * Share * Post * Pin * Share * Share * Print * Share Meta to build a $10 billion-plus, one-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso by is licensed under 08.19.2026