Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter Thursday to French energy giant TotalEnergies raising legal concerns over its deal with the federal government on its offshore wind leases.
The Trump administration last month announced it reached a nearly $928 million agreement with TotalEnergies to cancel its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and North Carolina.
As part of the deal, TotalEnergies committed to invest the value of those leases into oil and natural gas production in the United States. The administration is reportedly in talks with other developers to enact similar deals over their leases.
Whitehouse wrote a letter Thursday to TotalEnergies Chair and CEO Patrick Pouyanné seeking answers over the source of the funding for the reimbursement. Other congressional Democrats have pressed the administration and Pouyanné in recent days with similar questions.
