U.S. Interior Secretary says open to new offshore drilling

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Wednesday the Obama administration was open to oil drilling in new offshore areas as part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul U.S. energy policy.

But he would not specify which tracts could be opened to energy exploration.

"As we move forward with the development of our oil and gas resources, both on-shore and off-shore, they have to be part of a set of a comprehensive energy program," Salazar told reporters at the White House.

"There are places where it is appropriate to explore and to develop oil and gas resources, and there are places that are not appropriate," Salazar said.

Earlier, during a briefing at the department, Salazar told reporters he thought the Gulf of Mexico would be a good place to allow more drilling.

He said the department would decide in the months ahead what new areas should be opened to exploration.

Salazar said the Interior Department was reviewing the "midnight" regulations the Bush administration sought to implement in the waning weeks and days of its tenure.

Some of those regulations would expand expanded drilling,

"We have all of those on the table, and we're taking a look at them," Salazar said. "There are some which are bad and which need a new direction. There are probably some which will be kept in place."

He said it was a bad idea for the Bush administration to open millions of acres in the West to oil shale development when it was unclear how much water supply and energy will be needed to get out the oil.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said more offshore oil drilling alone would not solve America's energy problems, and that more solar energy, wind power and biofuels supplies are also needed.

"It's going to be all of those things taken together. I think that's what the president hopes to do," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)