--- title: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt... description: German energy company RWE has agreed to abandon its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a $1.2bn payout from the Trump administration's Department of the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects | daily.dev og:description: German energy company RWE has agreed to abandon its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a $1.2bn payout from the Trump administration's Department of the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/b2HE725iq.png og:image:alt: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary German energy company RWE has agreed to abandon its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a $1.2bn payout from the Trump administration's Department of the Interior. RWE plans to reinvest the funds into conventional gas projects, including $900m toward an LNG export terminal in Louisiana. The deal is part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration, which has also reached similar agreements with TotalEnergies and Duke Energy ($129bn) to terminate offshore wind leases in favor of fossil fuel investments. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 239 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-08-07). **TL;DR:** Commenters are overwhelmingly critical of the deal, calling it a hypocritical use of taxpayer money to subsidize fossil fuels while the administration claims to oppose 'costly subsidies' for renewables; a smaller thread debates energy mix, efficiency, and geopolitics without defending the policy itself. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 20% mixed · 75% skeptical **The case for** - A diversified energy mix (wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, gas) is genuinely needed to meet growing demand. **The pushback** - Paying $1.2B to halt renewable projects while decrying 'costly subsidies' is seen as blatantly contradictory. - The deal is viewed as serving fossil-fuel donor interests by keeping grid prices tied to more expensive gas. - All major forms of power generation receive subsidies, making the administration's framing dishonest. - Redirecting investment toward LNG rather than renewables worsens long-term climate and energy-security outcomes. - Offshore wind has already proven its value in other countries, generating over 35% of electricity in some regions. **By community** - hackernews (skeptical): Commenters are sharply critical, framing the deal as corrupt, hypocritical, and driven by fossil-fuel donor interests rather than any coherent energy policy. **Hottest debate:** Whether total energy consumption should grow indefinitely alongside quality of life, or whether efficiency and degrowth are viable and necessary alternatives. **Open questions** - Will the broader pattern of buying out offshore wind leases meaningfully raise long-term US electricity prices? - What accountability mechanisms, if any, exist to ensure the $1.2B payout actually serves the public interest? - How will the US compete with China's aggressive renewable and energy-independence buildout if it continues canceling offshore wind projects? **Highlights** > > Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement posted on X that Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense and not one dependent on "costly subsidies". I agree. This is why we are building offshore wind and not subsidizing fossil fuels, right? > — [saagarjha on hackernews · 7 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208499) > > not one dependent on "costly subsidies". While paying out 1.2 billion dollars. > — [Kim\_Bruning on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49209233) > This is the exact reason it's happening. Offshore wind is cheaper than gas /kWh and would therefore kill Trump's fossil fuel donor's profits. So kill offshore wind and the grid is forced to go to more expensive fossil fuel sources, which increased the grid price and means extra profits go to those companies. All this raises energy prices. > — [gman83 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49209086) > All forms of power generation are heavily subsidized. Anyone complaining about a particular form being subsidzed is a dishonest liar. I am personally for building nuclear and compulimenting it with some wind and hydro, but that is not related to what things are subsidized but because nuclear and hydro has worked really well here in Sweden providing reliable power and while wind has a spottier record I think diversification is good. > — [jeltz on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208739) > Insane. Over the last year, wind - mostly offshore - has generated more than 35% of electricity here. Gas is down to 27%. It's really, really good. And it looks cool. > — [juntoalaluna on hackernews · 6 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208521) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208314) · 195 points · 239 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Westinghouse is claiming a nuclear deal would see $80B of new reactors](https://daily.dev/posts/westinghouse-is-claiming-a-nuclear-deal-would-see-80b-of-new-reactors-rj3gy9xqk) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK offshore wind prices come in 40% cheaper than gas in record auction](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-offshore-wind-prices-come-in-40-cheaper-than-gas-in-record-auction-n1sv5cuaw) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Investors are betting $21 billion that the energy transition isn’t going away](https://daily.dev/posts/investors-are-betting-21-billion-that-the-energy-transition-isn-t-going-away-tr4vr1pmb) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [South Africa sees offshore wind powering AI data centres](https://daily.dev/posts/south-africa-sees-offshore-wind-powering-ai-data-centres-em9wxuttk) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq"},"datePublished":"2026-08-07T11:20:52.020Z","dateModified":"2026-08-07T12:22:11.970Z","description":"German energy company RWE has agreed to abandon its US offshore wind projects in exchange for a $1.2bn payout from the Trump administration's Department of the...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/523215e48af6a4b723d3e571fd64cfe9?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/523215e48af6a4b723d3e571fd64cfe9?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/us-strikes-1-2b-deal-to-pay-german-firm-to-halt-offshore-wind-projects-b2he725iq","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects"}]} ```