By Rodney White on January 20, 2010 3:02 PM

In its analysis of the US natural gas supplies released Wednesday, the American Gas Association asserted that its data should "quell any doubts about the ability of natural gas to supply the country well into the next century."

"The AGA believes that the strength of gas supply in the United States is not only founded on the abundance of the methane to be found in North America but also the diversity of those supplies," the report states.

Yet the 21-page report says nary a word about the host of challenges the industry faces as it seeks to develop that gas.

For instance, while AGA talks about the potential supplies to be found offshore in areas that have not been explored in more than 30 years, the report says not a word about the Obama administration's foot-dragging on leasing new areas for exploration along the Atlantic coast or the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Nor does the report say anything at all about Interior Department's new guidelines issued earlier this month to increase environmental scrutiny of proposed oil and gas development on Western public lands -- a move the industry insisted would create new hurdles to exploration.

The AGA also does not say a word about the criticism natural gas producers in New York and Pennsylvania are encountering from a variety of sources.

The city of New York, environmental groups, newspapers and others are demanding the state ban development of the part of the state's Marcellus Shale gas reserves. Development of shale gas reserves in Pennsylvania is permitted and is proceeding, but environmentalists and their political allies continue to push for federal regulation of hydro-fracking, a move the industry says would stymie drilling activity.

In short, supplies may indeed be very plentiful as AGA's rosy report suggests, but there is no guarantee the industry will be able to develop many of those resources.