In the two lawsuits, one challenging a buyout deal with Bluepoint Wind and the other challenging one with Invenergy, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the deals unlawfully misuse taxpayer dollars and sabotage states’ ability to meet growing energy demands. Filed during Climate Week, the lawsuits ask the court to stop the deals, which kill critical wind projects just to bankroll fossil fuel plants elsewhere in the country.   “Americans are facing increasing energy costs because this administration would rather pay off energy companies than let us build the new power sources we need,” said Attorney General James. “These illegal backroom deals take money that should have gone toward lowering New Yorkers’ bills and hand it to fossil fuel projects in other states, all while our energy demand continues to grow. At a moment when every available resource should go to keeping the lights on and prices down, this administration is choosing corruption over communities. We will fight until these unlawful deals are struck down.”  “The Trump administration’s unlawful pay-to-not-play scheme to pressure companies to forego planned offshore wind projects in America is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability to meet our energy needs, reduce emissions, create good paying jobs, and help secure American energy independence,” said Gov. Hochul. “Working with Attorney General James and the seven other AGs who filed this lawsuit, we will continue to fight back against the unending war against clean energy being waged by this President and his Republican allies to ensure a healthier and cleaner future that allows us to keep the lights on and costs down here in New York.”    Since the beginning of the president’s second term, his administration has continually attempted to stop offshore wind development. The president himself has stated that his “goal is not to let any windmill be built,” and his interior secretary promised that “under this administration, there is not a future for offshore wind.” After Attorney General James and other attorneys general secured repeated court wins striking down the federal government’s efforts to eliminate wind development, the administration pivoted to a new strategy: paying off companies to abandon their wind energy projects.   The first lawsuit challenges the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) deal with Bluepoint Wind, which canceled the company’s lease off the coast of New York and, in exchange, paid Bluepoint $765 million from the Judgment Fund, a taxpayer-funded account reserved for legitimate legal settlements. Instead of building the offshore wind farm New York was counting on, Bluepoint will use the money to build a liquefied natural gas facility and has committed not to pursue future offshore wind developments in the United States.    In the second lawsuit, the attorneys general are challenging DOI’s deal with Invenergy, which canceled three offshore wind leases, including one off the coast of New York, and paid the company $653 million from the same fund. Under the deal, Invenergy will not build a single wind turbine. Instead, it will redirect the $653 million to natural gas plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri and geothermal projects in the western United States.    The two canceled New York projects alone were expected to bring more than $16 billion in investments to New York and create more than 2,800 new jobs in the state. The canceled projects would have connected directly to New York City’s electric grid, providing a new source of electricity at a time when the state anticipates significant growth in demand. Combined with the other two Invenergy leases, the canceled projects were expected to generate over eight gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than four million homes.   The cancellations come as New York’s own energy planners project electricity demand will grow eight percent by 2030 and 24 percent by 2040, driven in part by economic development and new large loads such as data centers. At the same time, aging fossil fuel generators are approaching retirement, making new sources of power essential to meeting growing demand and maintaining grid reliability. If the administration deprives the Northeast of new energy generation while demand continues to outpace supply, electricity scarcity and grid congestion will worsen, which could increase energy costs for consumers.    The lawsuits assert that the administration is unlawfully using taxpayer dollars to advance the president’s policy preference for oil and gas development. According to Attorney General James’s office, “the agreements do not resolve any actual or imminent litigation, meaning the administration has no legal basis to pay these companies hundreds of millions of dollars from the Judgment Fund, which Congress established solely to pay legitimate legal claims against the government.’   Attorney General James, Gov. Hochul, and the coalition argue that the deals violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Judgment Fund Act, and other federal spending laws. They are asking the courts to declare the agreements unlawful, void the lease cancellations, and block the administration from taking any further action to carry out the deals.    Joining Attorney General James in filing both lawsuits are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. California is filing a separate, concurrent lawsuit challenging a deal between Invenergy and the administration to cancel a lease off its coast.