ALBANY – State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill Thursday said tapping the Marcellus Shale formation for a short term natural gas supply would provide New York with the opportunity to develop a reliable indigenous fuel supply.

Cahill’s comments came one day after the state DEC issued a draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement on the drilling of Marcellus Shale for natural gas.

“We have to recognize that we are using natural gas, and even if it is a transitional fuel as we move toward energy independence in New York State, we will need to use natural gas,” he said. “Isn’t it better that we extract it responsibly from New York State and have it here at our doorstep than have it shipped across the country from places like Louisiana where its coming out of swamps with virtually no environmental regulations or coming out of places like West Virginia where their idea of how you get at a mineral is to blow the top off a mountain.”

Catskill Mountainkeeper, meanwhile, said while the DEC offers a few new controls and protections, “It is dramatically inadequate in offering reasonable solutions that the public deserves.”

Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, said natural gas is “a clean, abundant and affordable fuel. Increasing production here in New York will help improve our economy, increase tax revenues and jobs, and bring our nation closer to energy independence.”

Trout Unlimited commended the state for not jumping the gun on gas drilling and has required a thorough regulatory analysis prior to allowing any gas company to drill in the state.

“Drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale is one of the most – if not the most – significant issues to impact New York’s native and wild tout fisheries in decades as well as local drinking water supplies,” said Ron Urban, Trout Unlimited’s New York Council chair, or Port Ewen. “It is critical that it be done in a way that protects these resources for future generations of sportsmen.”