New York state senator Tom Libous is frustrated, and frankly, it’s hard to blame the man. Here’s this from today’s Sayre (N.Y.) Morning Times:

“State Sen. Tom Libous has found himself using one word a lot lately with regard to the lack of natural gas drilling taking place within the Marcellus Shale area of New York state – frustrating.

“The Department of Environmental Conservation continues to drag its feet on releasing draft safety regulations for natural gas drilling,’ he said.”

New York, particularly Sen. Libous’s legislative district covering Broome County, stands to benefit enormously from safe and environmentally-proven production of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region. Unfortunately, some in Albany – as well as in Washington, DC – would rather keep the trillions of cubic feet of job-creating, revenue generating natural gas off-limits.

After formally requesting answers from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation at the beginning of April about why it is taking so long to permit clean-burning natural gas in New York, Sen. Libous finally heard back from the agency head Alexander Grannis almost two and half months later. Unfortunately, Mr. Grannis’ response was light on details, but heavy, it appears, on date stamps.

And while Gov. David Patterson has taken steps in the right direction, issuing a draft energy plan for the state highlight the importance of hydraulic fracturing, action is needed quickly from the government to begin permitting natural gas production, which will create thousands of good-paying jobs.

Hard to blame Sen. Libous for his frustrations, isn’t it?