California Sues Interior Over $120M Offshore Wind Lease Buyout
The state wants an April agreement that ended a 2 GW floating wind project declared unlawful
California has gone to court over the cancellation of a federal offshore wind lease off its central coast, asking a judge to invalidate the agreement that ended the project and to declare the payment behind it unlawful.
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, naming the Department of the Interior and the lease holder, Golden State Wind. The state argues that an agreement reached in April violates federal law and asks the court to set it aside.
At the centre of the case is $120 million in federal money used to reimburse Golden State Wind for relinquishing a lease it had bought at a federal auction in 2022. The developer had been planning a 2 GW floating offshore wind project and had committed more than $30 million to workforce training, supply-chain development and community benefits tied to the lease area.
The state contends that the arrangement breaches both the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Judgment Fund Act, on the grounds that the payment was not tied to any actual lawsuit. The Judgment Fund exists to settle claims against the federal government, and its use where no claim has been filed is the crux of California's argument.
The filing is the latest challenge to a federal programme of offshore wind cancellations. Around half a dozen projects at early stages of development have been cancelled across the country, and Democratic lawmakers have opened investigations into the use of the Treasury's Judgment Fund to reach those settlements.
For the maritime supply chain the stakes are concrete. Floating wind off California was one of the few near-term sources of work for US-flag offshore vessels, survey operators and West Coast port upgrades, and the pipeline behind those investments is now the subject of litigation rather than construction schedules.
