Washington, D.C. ? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has rejected a Bush administration plan to open vast waters off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and gas drilling, promising “a new way forward” in offshore energy development including new wind projects.

Salazar at a news conference Tuesday criticized “the midnight timetable” for new oil and gas development on the country’s Outer Continental Shelf proposed by the Bush administration four days before President Barack Obama took office Jan. 20.

The secretary said the previous administration’s plan did not take into consideration the views of states and coastal communities or a need to better understand what energy resources are at stake, especially off the Atlantic coast where oil and gas estimates are more than three decades old.

Salazar did not rule out expanded offshore drilling.