According to Global Times, the U.S. renewable energy sector has recently experienced a paradoxical situation: on one hand, the government is offering large sums of money to incentivize companies to abandon offshore wind power projects, while on the other hand, the country's largest-ever renewable energy project has finally been connected to the grid and started supplying electricity after 20 years of construction.

Against the backdrop of surging electricity demand and a global energy transition, trends and executive decisions in the U.S. energy sector are intertwining and clashing, resulting in a rather complex situation. According to The New York Times, the U.S. Department of the Interior stated last week that it would pay $765 million to U.S. energy developer Invenergy to abandon its plan to build an offshore wind power plant. Under the agreement, Invenergy will voluntarily return four federal offshore wind farm leases and use the government compensation to develop at least five new natural gas power plants in the Midwest and pursue geothermal projects in the West. This marks the third such transaction under the current U.S. administration to cancel offshore wind leasing rights. Previously, the U.S. government reached an agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies, which relinquished offshore wind projects near California and elsewhere in exchange for investing in fossil fuel projects. The report notes that the latest move means the U.S. government has spent about $2.5 billion on terminating offshore wind projects, which is described as “a highly unusual use of taxpayer money.”