Leaders in Erie decided not to sell mineral rights to an oil and gas operator for a new drilling project. The proposal had faced pushback from many residents. <\/p>\n
ERIE, Colo. \u2014 Leaders in Erie decided not to sell mineral rights to an oil and gas operator for a new drilling project after the proposal faced pushback from many who live there.<\/p>\n
Under a state law that took effect last year, operators are prevented from drilling into oil and gas owned by municipalities.<\/p>\n
Erie has the mineral rights to the Draco Well Site, giving it a say in the matter.<\/p>\n
In Tuesday night’s council meeting, residents pushed back on the plan, calling on council members to consider their constituents rather than just their own opinions.<\/p>\n
Erie town leaders said they were approached last year by Civitas Resources, which later merged with SM Energy, in hopes of acquiring Erie’s mineral rights within the Draco Oil and Gas Project.<\/p>\n
The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission had already approved the drilling area.<\/p>\n
The town’s mayor, Andrew Moore, said Erie brought on a consultant, Matt Owens, who was previously the chief operating officer from Civitas, as a consultant to help them on a plan for mineral rights.<\/p>\n
That consultant put together a plan for selling Erie’s mineral rights. Council members said it was the only plan presented to the town and it proposed partnering with Owens’ former company.<\/p>\n
But residents have been raising concerns about the plan’s timeline, why no other companies were considered and concerns over the use of executive sessions to make town decisions.<\/p>\n
“It’s more around the procedures. Are you going to give us a chance to vote for it? Are you going to go through the right steps? Are you going to actually conduct what I would consider a legitimate process that’s led us to the vote tonight? And the answer has been no, no they’re not,” said Steve Drew, an Erie resident.<\/p>\n
“What’s the damn rush? And don’t we get a voice?” asked Steven Klein, an Erie resident who spoke out at the council meeting. “Everybody except for two people tonight have spoken against this. Why is that and why are we pushing forward at warp speed?”<\/p>\n
Council member Emily Baer said based on concerns for the town’s health and questions raised from residents, she wanted to vote no on the plan. But she said issues raised over how the deal came together are important to consider, too.<\/p>\n
“You know, I think that’s valid and I think that should give council pause. And I’m on council, that should give us pause to consider that the community is saying that trust is broken and we have some work to do there to build trust,” Baer said.<\/p>\n
After hours of discussion and public comment, the council voted 3-3. The measure failed. Council member Dan Hoback was not present but sent in comments pushing back on the proposal.<\/p>\n
Some residents had called for more time and transparency in the proposal, urging council members to consider taking the plan to voters in a referendum.<\/p>\n
“I am not at all opposed to letting the public decide these things,” said Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Bell. “The big thing tonight was for that to have even been a possibility, this had to have passed tonight. So that option is pretty much dead at this point.”<\/p>\n
Bell said for Erie to get a say in getting abandoned well sites cleared up and revenue, they needed this deal.<\/p>\n
Other council members said they believe the measure’s failure is the right choice for the town and protecting its residents.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the town of Erie sent a statement to 9NEWS following the vote about its impact, saying, “According to SB 24-185, oil and gas developers cannot force pool the mineral rights from local governments. With the failure of this contract and agreement, the Draco project will have to adjust drilling plans to avoid the Town\u2019s minerals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders in Erie decided not to sell mineral rights to an oil and gas operator for a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-221686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}