Salazar on energy, endangered species

At his first formal press conference since being confirmed as Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar said he was "very concerned about a number of the midnight actions that were taken by the Bush administration."

The Chicago Tribune reports,

Salazar said the list of the late-inning decisions to be reviewed include starting the process for resumption of oil exploration in coastal areas, the move to open federal land near national parks for oil and natural gas drilling, opening parts of the Mountain West for oil shale development and several rulings on the Endangered Species Act.Almost all the Bush decisions were strongly opposed by environmental groups, many of which supported Barack Obama in last year's election.

On offshore drilling the AP reports:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the expansion of offshore oil drilling should be worked out with Congress as part of a broad energy blueprint. In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Salazar indicated the broad drilling plan left on his desk by the Bush administration likely will be scrapped. It would open the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts for drilling. Salazar declined to single out any waters considered automatically off limits to oil exploration. But he said he wants to work with Congress on "a plan that makes sense." And he said while some offshore waters are appropriate for energy development, "there are others that are not."