WASHINGTON - The Obama administration might reopen the debate over energy development on Colorado's Roan Plateau, and it's not going to "rush headlong" into oil shale development in the state, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters Thursday.

Salazar's statements came in the wake of his first big decision as a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet: Wednesday's announcement that he would void dozens of oil and gas leases on sensitive federal lands in southeastern Utah.

The Utah decision provoked a swift backlash from Republican lawmakers and outside groups, who accused him of doing the bidding of Hollywood environmentalists and ignoring the nation's energy needs.

But rather than backing down Thursday, Salazar offered some of his most forceful statements yet about the change the new administration will begin bringing to public lands policy.

"The position I take is the same position I took while I was a U.S. senator," Salazar said. "There are places that are very special and should be protected. There are places which ought to be explored and developed."

He said the Interior Department was in the process of examining 12 to 15 decisions made at the tail end of the Bush administration and decide, perhaps within the next month, whether to reverse them or let them stand.

Salazar was asked if that included the Roan Plateau, a western Colorado landmark.

On Aug. 14, the Interior Department auctioned off leases covering nearly 55,000 acres on the plateau to oil and gas companies. The auction fetched $113.5 million, an onshore record in the agency's history. Colorado stands to pocket $56 million, or 49 percent of the money.

"That is one of the issues that is on the table," Salazar said. "I don't know whether that will be a decision that we will reverse or whether we will not. We are looking at all our options on the Roan."

As a U.S. senator from Colorado, Salazar had urged the Bureau of Land Management not to move forward with leases for drilling on the Roan Plateau.

He also had tried to slow down oil shale development and opposed a decision in the closing months of the Bush administration to move forward with new regulations for commercial oil shale leasing.

Some environmentalists want the Interior Department to suspend the oil shale regulations altogether or block future requests to lease land for oil shale development, which involves extracting oil from rock buried deep under parts of western Colorado.

"Those resources will be part of our portfolio of energy for the future," Salazar said. "At the same time, we're not going to rush headlong into those developments when we have unanswered questions, as we do in the case of oil shale."

He said the Interior Department would examine all its options before deciding what action to take on oil shale.

But the Utah decision has put some Republicans and other critics on edge. The fallout continued Thursday when the Congress of Racial Equality accused Salazar of caving in to Hollywood, since actor Robert Redford was among those who opposed the leases.

"The only winners in this decision are the Hollywood elites who use our western states for a personal playground, burn a lot of energy to keep their private jets aloft and their mansions warm, and don't notice if energy costs go up," group spokesman Niger Innis said in a release.

"The losers are working parents, single mothers and elderly folks all over America, who count on abundant and affordable natural gas from states like Utah to remain employed, keep warm and stay alive."

Earlier, a group of Western states lawmakers had blasted the Utah decision.

"Taking more land out of production puts us further at the mercy of nations hostile to the United States," said Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs.

And the Denver-based Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States said it would have a "chilling effect" on Utah's economy.

Staff writer Gargi Chakrabarty contributed to the report.