While the debate goes on in Washington and around the country over whether to allow more offshore drilling, upstate New York state is poised for its its version of an oil rush. Only it isn’t oil that the drillers are after — it’s natural gas — and thus far there has been little or no political or public debate. This is a big issue, with major economic and environmental implications for the state, and they all need to be discussed and addressed before any new wells are drilled.

New York is sitting on trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, part of the Marcellus Shale formation that runs through Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the western and southern part of the state. In the last year or so the “gas play” has become much more attractive to the industry and investors, thanks to rising oil prices and a sophisticated drilling method known as horizontal drilling, where high pressure water and chemicals are used to extract the gas from the shale that contains it.

To accommodate the energy companies, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recently issued new regulations that made it far easier for them to did new wells using horizontal drilling. These were incorporated into a law that Gov. Paterson signed at the end of July. But at the same time, Paterson ordered the DEC to come up with a tougher generic environmental impact statement for this type of drilling, with public hearings to be held this fall, as well as study the potential cumulative effects of multiple drilling sites on air quality, aesthetics, noise, community character, etc. This is good, but in the meantime permits could still be issued and drilling begin. That’s not so good.

The pressure is definitely on. Gas companies have already paid hundreds of million of dollars in leasing fees to landowners. Actual drilling and related activities would bring billions of dollars to individuals, communities and the state, while providing more of this country’s most widely used furnace fuel and third-largest source of power generation. But along with the economic benefits must be considered possible environmental consequences, including contamination of New York City’s water supply (earlier this month the head of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection wrote the governor and legislators a letter expressing concern and asking for a one-mile buffer between any new wells and the city’s Catskill reservoirs).

The state can afford to take its time. The gas isn’t going anywhere, nor are the energy companies as long as there is money to be made. Let them continue to survey and dig test wells, but there should be a moratorium on full-scale drilling until all the questions are answered and protections put in place.