The Trump administration has directly spent $2.7bn of taxpayer money working to shut down offshore wind power while allocating a further $1.125bn to prop up coal, moves critics say are pushing up Americans' energy bills. Opponents argue the president is prioritising fossil-fuel companies — including those that donated record sums to his campaign — over the working-class voters he promised to help, with former Washington governor Jay Inslee accusing him of "fattening the wallets of his cronies" with public funds. The administration denies spending taxpayer money, framing the wind payments as returned bid money that firms are voluntarily redirecting to other energy projects.

Since March, the Department of the Interior has struck four deals paying companies to cancel eight offshore wind projects and invest in fossil fuels, the first with TotalEnergies and the latest with Duke Energy; seven Democratic-led states have sued, calling it an illegal use of public money. On coal, the Department of Energy announced $625m in September to extend the life of coal plants, up to $500m via the Defense Production Act for 13 plants and an Oakland export terminal, and a further $3.6m to retrofit nine plants. Analysts note there is no precedent for the government directly paying developers to give up legally acquired leases, and point out that coal is the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuel — one 2023 study linked up to 460,000 US deaths from 1999 to 2020 to coal-plant air pollution.