Yesterday, Duke Energy signed an agreement with the Trump administration to rescind its offshore wind lease in North Carolina and halt development of its Carolina Long Bay project in exchange for a reimbursement of their lease. This is the fourth payout by the Trump administration to halt offshore wind development and cancel leases. In a previous buyout, the administration paid TotalEnergies to abandon its lease neighboring the Duke Energy lease. Together, the two projects were estimated to support 37,000 jobs.

Following the announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance released a statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“It is a massive loss to see yet another opportunity for clean affordable power and job creation be stolen from workers and their communities. This project could have powered 300,000 North Carolina homes and would have created tens of thousands of jobs in the process. The loss of this project while energy bills are skyrocketing is disgraceful.”