The Trump administration is looking to get rid of all remaining offshore wind leases in the US in the same way it did with TotalEnergies – by offering to buy the companies out in exchange for investments in oil and gas.

However, this might prove difficult, since a number of companies are renewables-based and can’t reinvest buyout proceeds in fossil fuel projects.

The Financial Times reported that the Department of the Interior held talks on Monday with several companies holding offshore wind leases to persuade them to agree to deals like the one with TotalEnergies. The French energy firm agreed to receive nearly $1bn in reimbursements and invest the funds in US oil and gas projects.

President Donald Trump’s battle against offshore wind has not been overly successful. A series of stop-work orders issued in 2025 by the US government against offshore wind projects were nixed by court rulings. The order was to “halt all ongoing activities” pending a review to address unspecified concerns raised by the Department of the Interior.

Then, in December 2025, the tactic was switched to framing offshore wind as a national security issue. This time, the target was five projects in advanced stages of development. However, the courts lifted stop-work orders for all five projects.

Trump’s strategy has now shifted towards buying out companies’ leases, some worth hundreds of millions of dollars, in exchange for investing in fossil fuel projects. Currently, there are 43 active offshore wind leases off the coast of the US.

Some of the larger ones include EDP and Engie, which hold a $120m lease. Invenergy has four leases on the east and west coasts of the US, including a site near New York that it, along with energyRe, acquired for $645mn. German firm RWE paid $1.1bn for a lease in New York and $157.7m for a lease in California.

For any deal that is a TotalEnergies facsimile, companies must be planning fossil energy investments in the US. Invenergy and RWE are two such firms, but others like Engie and EDP are only focused on renewables, and such a deal will not work.

“They would ideally want payment and a way out if they can, but unlike Total, they can’t do this transaction with a pledge to invest in fossil fuels,” a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. “The question is whether they can find a mechanism that works.”

It is important to note that some projects simply can’t be bought out that easily, as they are already developed to a certain point, such as Equinor’s Empire Wind, which is around 60% complete. This was confirmed by Anders Opedal, Equinor CEO, to the Financial Times, because the TotalEnergies deal was only a lease and not a project already well under construction. As he put it, the “starting point is quite different, compared to what was announced [with TotalEnergies]”.