The red-hot drilling boom set off two years ago by the discovery of a massive natural-gas field more than a mile below Pennsylvania soil has clicked back to a low simmer. Even when Gov. Rendell was touting the gas "gold rush" and eyeing it as the source of possible tax revenue earlier this year, the recession and plummeting natural-gas prices had already slowed the drilling frenzy in the rich vein that courses from New York to West Virginia.

The industry slowdown could not come at a worse time for the state. Noting the gas field's "tremendous potential value," Rendell proposed a first-ever tax on extracted gas as a way to help plug the widening budget hole, saying it could generate $100 million in the next fiscal year starting July 1.

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