California's attorney general says a federal agreement to pay an Invenergy subsidiary to abandon a Central Coast offshore wind lease violates federal offshore leasing law.
What happened
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said Thursday that the state sent a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Interior and Invenergy over an offshore wind lease buyout agreement tied to the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area.
The state says DOI's June 17 agreement would use more than $111 million in federal taxpayer money to pay an Invenergy subsidiary to abandon Lease OCS-P 0565 off California's Central Coast, while requiring the company to make an equivalent investment in fossil fuel or geothermal projects.
California alleges the buyout violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which the attorney general's office says gives the state a role in the offshore wind leasing program. The notice gives DOI and Invenergy 60 days to cure the alleged violations before California files suit.
The dispute follows DOI's $120 million buyout of Golden State Wind LLC's offshore wind lease in the same Morro Bay area. The attorney general's office said the Invenergy lease buyout is part of a broader federal effort to buy back offshore wind leases, and that California issued a similar notice in June targeting the Golden State Wind deal.
According to the California DOJ, Invenergy paid the U.S. more than $111 million in 2022 for the Morro Bay lease, which was tied to a project of up to two gigawatts, and made more than $30 million in additional workforce, supply-chain and community commitments.
Attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont also filed a joint notice Thursday challenging additional lease buyouts involving Invenergy subsidiaries, according to the California release.