US deciding whether to reconsider approval of Virginia offshore wind project

Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is reviewing whether to send the Interior Department's Biden-era approval of a Virginia offshore wind project that is under construction back to the agency for reconsideration, according to a court document filed on Wednesday.

The agency is conducting a review of offshore wind leases to comply with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's July order to end preferential treatment for wind and solar projects, it said in a filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

"Consistent with (the secretarial order), undersigned counsel is advised that DOI plans to conduct a review in which it will consider if remand would be appropriate," the filing said.

Interior in recent months has sought court approval to reconsider Biden administration permits for several offshore wind projects, a technology U.S. President Donald Trump calls expensive and ugly.

But Dominion's D.N Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which is expected to provide power for 660,000 homes, would be the farthest along. The company has installed all 176 monopiles, or wind turbine foundations, has lain deepwater cables and completed one of three offshore substations, it said in a regulatory filing in October.

Interior's court filing was made jointly with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and two other conservative groups that sued the Interior Department last year over its approval of the $11.2 billion project, which is expected to be operating by the end of next year.

Neither the Interior Department nor Dominion was immediately available for comment.

Interior and the suing groups asked the court to continue Judge Loren AliKhan's June stay of the litigation for an additional 45 days until Feb. 2.

The parties said they conferred with attorneys for Dominion, which agreed to the stay but did "not concede the propriety of

any 'review' or 'remand',” the filing said.