NEW WINDSOR – US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants environmental safeguards in place to protect drinking water before she will support hydrofracking to mine natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation.  Her comments came during a meeting with Hudson Valley business leaders at Stewart Airport Wednesday.

CH Energy Group President Steven Lant put in a pitch for the natural gas mining, saying it would be a closer supply of gas and provide local jobs.

“We use natural gas to generate electricity and our natural gas is currently coming from either the Gulf of Mexico, which is 1,500 miles away, or western Canada, which is 2,000 miles away.”

Gillibrand said while Marcellus Shale gas would provide an economic shot in the arm, she doesn’t want to support hydrofracking until she has answers to questions about the process of pumping chemicals under intense pressure into the shale formation.

“My view is do the research that we can do, have the disclosure we need, see if there is a safer method than hydrofracking or a variant in chemicals that can be used where we use safe chemicals,” she said. “We just need to know that it’s safe.”

The state and federal governments are currently studying the issue of hydrofracking for natural gas.