Senator Markey Leads Colleagues in Demanding a Stop to Taxpayer Funds Being Used to Block Offshore Wind Energy Projects

As Trump administration actions cause massive increases in energy costs, Markey, colleagues urge Senate appropriators to prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to prevent clean energy construction

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (April 14, 2026) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today led his colleagues in requesting that the Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations legislation include language that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to stop the construction of offshore wind energy facilities, in a letter sent to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies; Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; and Financial Services and General Government.

This request follows the Trump administration's announcement that it would pay TotalEnergies, a French energy company, nearly $1 billion not to build two offshore wind farms off the East Coast of the United States. Such payments, which may be unlawful, are a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars that will decrease American energy independence, increase U.S. reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels, destroy good-paying union jobs, and raise costs for U.S. energy consumers. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Senator Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) joined the letter.

The lawmakers wrote, "The trust of the American public and the fair use of taxpayer dollars depends upon our ability to ensure that federal agencies do not engage in legally questionable and opaque deals with foreign private companies, especially when those deals will decrease our energy independence, raise costs at home, and simply defy common sense."

The lawmakers continued, "The Administration's legally dubious TotalEnergies payoff comes at a time when Americans' energy bills are skyrocketing. Electricity bills have risen as much as 13 percent since the start of this Administration and the price of a gallon of gasoline has climbed by more than $1.00 per gallon since President Trump attacked Iran. In these conditions, the Administration's plan to deprive Americans of a clean, affordable, reliable energy source-all while subsidizing a foreign energy company's operations-is even more nonsensical."

In March, Senator Markey and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) wrote to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in opposition to the Trump administration's payoff to TotalEnergies using taxpayer funding and demanding answers on the legal basis for this decision. The lawmakers asked the Administration to stop this pay-off, which will keep much-needed American-made power off the grid, and to explain the statutory authority and funding source of the proposed transfer. The wind farms could have produced enough electricity to power more than one million homes and businesses in New York and New Jersey, and approximately 300,000 in North Carolina.

In December 2025, Senators Markey and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding access to the Department of Defense classified reports that the Department of Interior cited in its decision to announce a pause on leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States.

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