Claim:
In August 2026, the Trump administration provided German energy firm RWE with $1.2 billion to halt the construction of wind farms.
<div class="rating_wrapper">
<span class="wrapper_title">Rating:</span>
<a id="main_rating" class="rating_link_wrapper" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rating/true">
<div class="rating_img_wrap">
<img class="lazy-image" src="https://mediaproxy.snopes.com/width/200/https://media.snopes.com/2018/03/rating-true.png" alt="True"/>
</div>
</a>
</div>
</section>
<input type="hidden" id="article_url" value="/fact-check/trump-rwe-wind-farms/"/>
<p>Social media claims surfaced in August 2026 alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration disbursed over $1.2 billion to the German energy enterprise RWE to induce the company to walk away from active offshore wind development.</p>
<p>A widely shared <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheOther98/posts/pfbid02pjXZsL3tkRyAjtXu9H6QhfDMkM6ZUZzpUXqy8i9Fc3R4yyga1cmj7eHkoYpQr5Lpl">Facebook post</a> (<a href="https://perma.cc/8KYQ-K38K?type=image">archived</a>) contended that the federal government was nudging RWE to redirect its capital toward natural gas initiatives instead. The accompanying text stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>New levels of stupid just dropped. The Trump administration just wired a German energy company $1.22 billion to NOT build wind farms.</p>
<p>That is the fifth time this year it has paid a company to walk away from clean power, and the total is closing in on $4 billion of public money.</p>
<p>RWE was set to put wind turbines off the coast of Humboldt, California. Enough to power roughly 600,000 homes. Instead Doug Burgum's Interior Department cut them a check to abandon the leases and pour the money into gas.</p>
<p>This is not a subsidy for wind. It is a payout to kill it.</p>
<p>RWE is taking the cash and dropping $900 million into a Louisiana gas terminal and a fleet of new gas plants. So the "energy security" on offer is you breathing more of what comes out of a smokestack, on purpose, because your government paid a premium for it.</p>
<p>Burgum's justification is the best part. He said Americans deserve energy that doesn't lean on "costly subsidies." He said this while handing $1.22 billion to a foreign corporation.</p>
<p>The projects were legal. They were permitted under Biden. Courts keep telling this administration it cannot simply cancel wind farms, and a federal judge in Oregon was leaning against them this week.</p>
<p>So they found a workaround. If you cannot kill the clean energy in court, buy it and bury it.</p>
<p>Cheaper power, off the table. Cleaner air, off the table. Six hundred thousand homes that will now pull from gas burned somewhere a kid has to breathe it.</p>
<p>They will tell you this keeps the lights on and the bills low. It does the opposite. Gas peaker plants are some of the priciest power you can build. The turbines were the cheap option. They paid extra for the dirty one and called it responsible.</p>
<p>Your grandkids inherit the heat. A German company inherits the check.</p>
<p>And somewhere in Essen, an executive is still working out how he got paid a billion dollars to lose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As this narrative gained traction across <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1vhy6b9/us_strikes_12bn_deal_to_pay_german_firm_to_halt/">Reddit</a> (<a href="https://perma.cc/C4VS-TVNF">archived</a>) and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbtO56gDzy5/">Instagram</a> (<a href="https://perma.cc/JAX2-88G3?type=image">archived</a>), readers reached out to verify the accuracy of the report.</p>
<p>Official announcements regarding the arrangement were published on August 6, 2026, by both RWE in a <a href="https://www.rwe.com/en/press/rwe-americas/2026-08-06-rwe-us-offshore-reaches-settlement-with-doi-on-offshore-wind-leases/">press release</a> and by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum <a href="https://x.com/SecretaryBurgum/status/2085409733989589124">on X</a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260807095054/https://www.rwe.com/en/press/rwe-americas/2026-08-06-rwe-us-offshore-reaches-settlement-with-doi-on-offshore-wind-leases/">archived</a>, <a href="https://perma.cc/BT83-84HK">archived</a>). Consequently, the claim is classified as true.</p>
<p>According to RWE's statement, the company finalized a settlement with the Department of the Interior (DOI) to relinquish offshore wind leases located near the coasts of New York, California, and Louisiana. RWE noted that these leases, originally acquired from the U.S. government, had already absorbed over $1 billion in development expenditures and represented years of cooperative federal planning and investment.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the settlement, RWE plans to redirect $1.2 billion toward natural gas initiatives.</p>
<p>On the same day, Burgum utilized X to express approval of the agreement, highlighting RWE's "voluntary investment" in natural gas infrastructure.</p>
<p>This transaction is part of a broader pattern under the current administration in 2026. In March, officials negotiated a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260401002231/https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-and-totalenergies-agree-end-offshore-wind-projects-lowering-costs-american#:~:text=Lease%20No.%20OCS,payment%20of%20%24795%2C000%2C000.">$928 million accord</a> with the French energy giant <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260801021149/https://totalenergies.com/newsroom/united-states-totalenergies-signs-agreements-with-us-department-of-interior-to-end-its-us-offshore-wind-projects/?lang=eng">TotalEnergies</a> to terminate two offshore wind initiatives. An additional <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-announces-two-historic-agreements-promote-affordable-reliable-energy">similar arrangement</a> involving two other offshore wind developers was announced by the DOI in April. In every instance, the department characterized the payouts as reimbursements for the terminated leases.</p>
<p>Data compiled by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/rwe-says-reached-122-bln-deal-cancel-us-offshore-wind-leases-invest-gas-2026-08-06/">Reuters</a> indicates that the Trump administration has committed roughly $4 billion throughout 2026 to compensate energy firms for canceling ongoing offshore wind projects.</p>
<p>For further context, previous fact-checks by our team have addressed other wind energy rumors involving Trump, such as a <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/scotland-wind-farm-trump-golf/">claim</a> regarding Scottish approval for a new wind farm shortly after the U.S. leader voiced objections to turbines during a U.K. visit.</p>