As Governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum was a big proponent of wind power in his state and in the fall of 2024, even highlighted the fact that wind supplied roughly one-third of the state’s electricity.
Now as Interior Secretary, he seems to have a different opinion about wind. In Houston this week, he joined TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne in finalizing an agreement to cancel federal offshore wind leases worth $1 billion. The money is to be redirected into an investment of oil and natural gas projects.
Pouyanne also was a previous supporter of wind projects, stating in the fall of 2024 he was hopeful his company’s offshore wind projects could move forward once Trump left office, according to a report by Axios Energy.
Burgum tried to explain at Monday’s briefing in Houston when Axios pointed out what looked like a change of heart.
“The cost of offshore is much, much higher than onshore,” he explained.
And Pouyanne?
“It’s important that our investments fit with the policies developed by the countries, and that’s what we’ll do here in the U.S.,” he said. “Our decision on U.S. offshore wind, which is to renounce the technology here, has not been renounced in other places.”