The Trump plan is to pay $1B taxpayer money to stop wind farms if they invest in oil projects. REACT group wants to do that here
As of April 2,San Luis Obispo attorney Saro Rizzo, VP of the REACT Alliance, an anti-offshore wind group, asked the Trump administration in a letter to pursue lease refund agreements with the five companies currently holding offshore wind leases in California, three of which are off the coast of Morro Bay. A story was published in Cal Coast News.
The paper reported that in 2022, the federal government auctioned off three offshore wind energy sites located between 20 and 30 miles off the coast near Morro Bay for more than $400 million. REACT, like Mr Trump, calls offshore wind “destructive.”
“Wind is for stupid people,” the president has said.
The REACT request to the Dept of Interior looks to replicate a March 23 agreement with TotalEnergies that offered that company a refund of over $928 million to give up their two offshore wind leases and shift their investment to production of fossil fuels – oil and natural gas including off the US coast, if they “renounce” offshore wind projects
A Dept of Interior release says” TotalEnergies has committed to invest approximately $1 billion—the value of its renounced offshore wind leases—in oil and natural gas and LNG production in the United States. Following their new investment, the United States will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar, up to the amount they paid in lease purchases …”
Cal Coast News says “In Dec. 2025, based on national security concerns, the Trump administration suspended leases of all off-shore wind farms currently under construction in the United States. Since then, many wind energy projects have stalled or ended.”
Well, not quite.
In a development that may have significant impact for the West Coast too, the Trump administration’s Department of Interior missed a final deadline-April 10- to appeal a number of court rulings that Trump lost.
Last December the Trump administration demanded that construction stop at five major wind projects off the East Coast citing national security concerns. But all five developers of the projects challenged his move in court and all 5 won – allowing work to continue. Collectively, they’ll be capable of generating enough electricity to power over 2 million homes.
A news report says the Department of Interior did not appeal the court rulings because a pending bipartisan congressional bill needed to fund public works and transportation projects that would continue to be stalled if the administration did not back off on court challenges to offshore wind. That position was outlined by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a supporter of offshore wind.
A news report quotes Whitehouse, more than willing to play hardball given he is Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, holding up a number of key bills the GOP needs to pass.
“We have paused permitting reform negotiations until the attack on clean energy ends and we can have some assurance that a solid bipartisan bill, which we were working on, would actually get implemented fairly by this administration,” Whitehouse said. “So that’s paused. And by the way, good luck with your highway bill — the other bill that needs to come through me. And good luck with the Army Corps of Engineers WRDA bill — the other bill that needs to come through me.”
Canary Media reports that The lack of appeals could be good news for future wind projects as well. A bipartisan group of senators has been debating a long-delayed “permitting reform” bill for months. The bill would speed up environmental review for critical energy projects, make it easier to build interstate transmission lines, and protect clean energy permits from federal interventions like those of the Trump administration. (It would also likely afford the same protections to oil and gas projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline, which President Joe Biden scrapped after taking office in 2021.)
Also California Attorney General Bonta in December celebrated a decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts invalidating the Trump Administration’s action freezing the development of wind energy and declaring that action unlawful. That decision vacates the Trump Administration’s “Day One” executive memorandum, which imposed an indefinite moratorium on offshore and onshore wind energy projects.
Not Stalled
So the projects are not stalled or ended. The West Coast offshore wind projects are very much alive as well. But REACT wants the government to use more taxpayer funds to buy out the 5 leases along the West Coast including the 3 off Morro Bay.
REACT wants to replicate the TotalEnergies formula- trade the wind projects for oil projects. That works for the president.Trump has apparently found a champion for drill-baby-drill in California from a Central Coast group that says they want to protect our environment. Trump is doing everything he can to restart oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast right now and now apparently a citizens group is ready to help despite the fact that fossil fuels are heating up the global environment, causing havoc both on and off shore.
Does REACT support OIL? Here is the last paragraph in their letter to the Trump administration. Notice the code words “energy dominance”.
“We request the opportunity to discuss how the REACT Alliance can support the Department in securing a future for the California coast that prioritizes genuine conservation and energy dominance over the ineffective economic boondoggle known as floating offshore wind.”
One of President Donald Trump’s major priorities in his second term has been his so-called “energy dominance” agenda to boost fossil fuel production by weakening or eliminating environmental protections.
REACT says “We do not accept donations from fossil fuel companies.” But this letter makes it clear it supports Trump’s energy policies that include West Coast oil drilling both offshore and on thousands of acres of California BLM land including right here next to Los Osos Middle School. Now they support giving the same foreign-owned energy companies they complain about – millions in taxpayer monies to switch to oil.