HARRISBURG -- With just over a month to go before the deadline, state officials are still far apart in working out an agreement for a new tax on natural gas extracted from deep underground areas of Marcellus Shale.

Gov. Ed Rendell traveled Friday to Wellsboro in Tioga County, on the northern fringe of Pennsylvania but in the heart of Marcellus Shale country, to repeat his call for the state Legislature to enact a gas severance tax by Oct. 1. That target date for enacting such a tax was established in early July, when a deal on the 2010-11 state budget was reached.

Mr. Rendell is counting on $70 million being generated by the Marcellus Shale tax this fiscal year to help erase a $282 million deficit in the budget.

He'd like to see a tax structured like the one in West Virginia -- imposing a 5 percent levy on the value of the natural gas that's sold, plus an additional 4.7 cents for each 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced.

Some Marcellus gas producers think that's too high, and say the tax shouldn't be prohibitive when the industry is just getting started.

But Mr. Rendell said, "Pennsylvania is the 15th largest production state for natural gas, but is the only major fossil fuel producer that does not levy a tax on natural gas extraction. That's just not fair."

To his audience in Wellsboro, he added, "With your help, we are going to change that."

Mr. Rendell wants to get a tax in place because natural gas extraction, especially in the areas of the state where Marcellus Shale is located, has been significantly increasing in recent years, raising fears about damage to roads and water supplies.

So far this year, 1,765 natural gas wells have been drilled in the state, including 848 wells in areas of Marcellus Shale. And of those wells, 171 have been drilled in Tioga County alone. The state Department of Environmental Protection has already issued more than 1,900 permits for Marcellus Shale drilling in the state, a figure expected to reached 2,700 by year's end.

Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati of Jefferson, the top Republican in the state Senate, said he wants to work with Democrat Rendell to meet the Oct. 1 tax deadline, but he criticized what he called "the governor's almost punitive approach toward the [natural gas] industry" in working toward such a tax.

Mr. Scarnati said the governor seems like he "wants to punish the industry" by raising new taxes to fill a budget hole, rather than helping towns to fix roads damaged by heavy trucks and drilling equipment and to protect water supplies from hazardous "fracking fluids" that are used to extract the gas from the underground shale.

Mr. Rendell said he too wants to protect the environment and groundwater supplies near drilling sites and to finance state inspectors who check to make sure drilling is being done safely.

"To accomplish these goals," Mr. Rendell said, "the gas companies profiting from this rapidly growing industry should be willing to pay a fair share levy." He said a recent poll showed that eight out of 10 state residents favored a tax on gas companies.

Mr. Scarnati said he is meeting with representatives of the industry, environmental groups and officials of the counties and towns where drilling is going on, and hopes to have a shale tax proposal ready when legislators return to the Capitol in mid-September. He said he wants to address how much money it is fair to raise and where it should be spent.

"Hopefully we'll come up with a comprehensive package that's a starting point for negotiations," he said. "It's my goal to fulfill the obligation for Oct. 1, but I'm not going to fulfill it solely on what the governor wants or on what he will or won't accept."

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