James calls the Bluepoint and Invenergy payments "illegal backroom deals"

Where this statement fits

Did the Interior Department's offshore wind lease-cancellation payments comply with the Judgment Fund Act?

Beginning in March 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a series of agreements paying offshore wind developers TotalEnergies, Invenergy, and Bluepoint Wind a combined total of more than $2.3 billion to cancel seven offshore wind leases and redirect the money into oil, gas, and other conventional energy projects. Interior and the Department of Justice have said the payments were reviewed and approved settlements and dollar-for-dollar refunds that no company was forced to accept. Seven state attorneys general sued in June 2026; joined by an eighth, Delaware, and separately by California, they filed four federal lawsuits between June and September 2026 arguing the payments violate the Judgment Fund Act, 31 U.S.C. 1304, because no actual or imminent litigation existed to settle and because compensation for a canceled lease is otherwise available under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Members of Congress, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Deborah Ross, sent separate oversight letters demanding records on the legal basis for the payments. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne has said the payment returns money the company itself gave the Treasury in 2022, a characterization Interior Secretary Doug Burgum echoed by calling it an "interest-free loan" being repaid.