The Trump administration executed two high-profile domestic policy moves on March 24, 2026, that together illustrate the breadth of its campaign to reshape American energy production and university governance. The Interior Department confirmed it will pay $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies to surrender two offshore wind leases off the U.S. Atlantic coast. Hours later, the Education Department announced it is opening two separate federal investigations into Harvard University — one focused on campus antisemitism, the second on admissions practices.
The offshore wind buyout is without precedent in U.S. energy policy. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné confirmed in a statement that the returned lease fees will finance construction of a liquefied natural gas facility in Texas — a direct substitution, in financial terms, of offshore renewable capacity for onshore fossil fuel infrastructure. The Interior Department framed the transaction as "protecting American fisheries and coastal economies"; environmental groups immediately characterized it as a billion-dollar subsidy to fossil fuel interests disguised as a lease cancellation.
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