{"id":269834,"date":"2026-08-21T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269834\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:42:12","slug":"update-erie-oil-and-gas-drilling-deal-falls-apart-after-sm-energy-backs-out-kgnu-community-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269834\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Erie oil and gas drilling deal falls apart after SM Energy backs out \u2013 KGNU Community Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a successful community-led anti-drilling effort, Erie announced Wednesday night that oil and gas drillers SM Energy has backed out of a multimillion mineral rights deal with the town.<\/p>\n

According to CBS Colorado<\/a>, negotiations over the Draco pad had been underway for nearly two years. The Draco pad includes miles of drilling, and Erie still owns the mineral rights beneath several small sections of land that extend underneath neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

The Erie Town Council had sold the mineral rights to SM Energy for $4.5 million over the summer. The sale would have meant more drilling underneath neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Following the controversial town vote, opponents gathered 1,500 signatures in support of a referendum that would put the sale to voters.<\/p>\n

Erie Town Council Member Emily Baer told CBS Colorado that pushback from Erie residents could be part of the reason SM Energy canceled the multimillion-dollar deal.<\/p>\n

Many residents who opposed the SM Energy deal said that they did so out of concerns about how drilling might impact the community\u2019s health and safety.<\/p>\n

Erie will retain ownership of its mineral rights for the time being. The town is still evaluating the implications of the end of the agreement, according to the Wednesday release.<\/p>\n

On August 4, KGNU\u2019s Liz Lane interview current Erie mayor Justin Brooks on It\u2019s the Economy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On August 18, Lane spoke with Andrew Moore, former Erie mayor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a successful community-led anti-drilling effort, Erie announced Wednesday night that oil and gas drillers SM Energy has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-269834","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\/269834","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=269834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}