WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday his agency will review “midnight rules” on mountaintop coal mining and oil-shale development approved by the Bush Administration in its final weeks.

The new secretary said the Interior Department will examine “several” other approvals to determine its options. “Some of the regulations are bad, and some are good,” Salazar said during a press conference in New York City Friday. “And what we will do is we will undertake a review of all of those regulations.”

The Bush administration drew criticism from environmental goups and some lawmakers for Interior Department policies it finalized recently.

The Bush administration in mid-December gave final approval to rules that make it easier for companies that mine for coal buried under mountaintops to dump rock and sludge near rivers and streams, in a victory for coal companies. The administration said the mining rule strikes a balance between protecting the environment and the country’s reliance on coal, which accounts for about half of all U.S. electricity.

Last week, the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, opened a second round of land leases for oil shale research in the western United States. Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that contains organic matter from which oil may be produced. The process, however, is expensive and has raised concerns about its impact on water supplies. Salazar, a former U.S. Senator from Colorado, has opposed expanding oil-shale leases.

Also last week, the Minerals Management Service, also part of the Interior Department, proposed a five-year oil and gas lease sale that would auction offshore drilling acreage in areas previously banned. The decision on the proposal will be left to the new administration. Salazar was in New York City Friday touring the Statue of Liberty. His department is examining options for re-opening the statue’s crown section,
which was closed following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.