{"id":3315,"date":"2026-08-02T19:03:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3315"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:03:39","slug":"controversial-mineral-access-deal-takes-eries-oil-and-gas-battle-to-a-new-level-we-have-been-fracked-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3315","title":{"rendered":"Controversial mineral-access deal takes Erie\u2019s oil and gas battle to a new level: \u2018We have been fracked enough\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ERIE \u2014 A battle raging over a proposed 26-well fracking project just outside town is unlike other Colorado oil and gas disputes that have come before.<\/p>\n

Read more How severe drought is affecting Colorado, from record fishing restrictions to threatened power supplies<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s complex and multilayered, with a 48-page minerals access agreement at its heart that has stirred questions and suspicion among residents of fast-growing Erie, which straddles Boulder and Weld counties.<\/p>\n

The quarrel related to what is known as the Draco oil and gas pad, which has received clearance from the state to move forward, is now likely headed to a special election \u2014 a vote that will test the tolerance of Erie residents for the latest fracking project in a town that sits at the edge of the energy-rich Denver-Julesburg Basin.<\/p>\n

Opponents are crying foul over a controversial deal Erie\u2019s elected leaders approved in June \u2014 on the second try \u2014 to sell town-owned underground minerals to SM Energy for up to $35 million over the next two decades. The agreement calls for the company to give the town 160 acres of land as well. SM also would plug and abandon old wells in exchange for access to the subterranean riches.<\/p>\n

Many in this town of 42,000 question whether there was enough openness in the way town leaders crafted the minerals agreement with SM Energy\u00a0\u2014 and why a consultant who once worked for a company that recently merged with it\u00a0was hired to help Erie close the deal.<\/p>\n

In a larger sense, the community pushback in Erie is the latest flashpoint in a long history of standoffs between residents, industry representatives and state regulators. Those disputes have centered on the question of how the state\u2019s communities can co-exist with an industry that employs thousands of Coloradans and injects billions of dollars into the economy \u2014 including tax revenues that fund school districts and other local government services \u2014\u00a0while also posing threats to human health and the natural environment.<\/p>\n

Fights over proposed drilling operations are gearing up, or already underway, in other burgeoning areas of the Front Range, including southeast Aurora, Adams County and Windsor.<\/p>\n

The Draco pad would be located just east of the Erie town line in unincorporated Weld County. SM Energy\u2019s lateral wells, drilled 7,000 feet deep, would extend westward for approximately 5 miles across Erie and into Boulder County.<\/p>\n

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For Amy Becker, an 11-year Erie resident, people\u2019s health and peace of mind outweigh any financial benefits the town might accrue from doing business with an oil and gas operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s not about the money,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s about doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The right thing, she says, would be to resist SM Energy\u2019s plans and make it as hard as possible for the company to do business at the edge of the bedroom community, where new suburban houses are sprouting from the ground just a mile from the proposed well pad site. The site is at the northwest corner of Weld County roads 6 and 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we want to make it easier for them or do we want to make it harder for them?\u201d Becker said. \u201cWe have been fracked enough \u2014 we want to be done with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Becker has been helping collect signatures for a petition to send a measure to a special election ballot, asking voters if they want to keep the agreement Erie made with SM Energy, a $7 billion oil and gas firm based in Denver \u2014 or scuttle it.<\/p>\n

Last week, Erie\u2019s clerk determined the petitioners had gathered a sufficient number of valid signatures to go to the voters. Assuming it isn\u2019t successfully challenged over the next month or so, the measure will appear on a ballot in the fall.<\/p>\n

An election date has not yet been set, though a town spokeswoman last week said Erie would do all it can to include the measure on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. If the timeline doesn\u2019t allow that, it will likely appear on a special election ballot a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a decision like this, where the repercussions last decades, if not longer \u2014 and it affects everyone in Erie \u2014 you really need the backing of the people,\u201d said Emily Brecht, a recent Erie resident who is spearheading the ballot effort. \u201cMany people did not feel heard when the Town Council made the decision ultimately to make a deal with SM Energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erie Mayor Andrew Moore, who voted in favor of the minerals deal, said there are \u201cactivists against the oil and gas industry in and around Erie, (who were) either trying to stop Draco before or (are) just being against oil and gas in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s emotional commitment to that,\u201d Moore added.<\/p>\n

But killing the deal with SM Energy would be tantamount to Erie shooting itself in the foot, he said. The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, the regulatory body that decides on drilling and fracking applications statewide, approved the Draco pad more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

That means the project can move forward regardless. Absent a deal with SM, Erie will forfeit millions of dollars that the town could use to fund infrastructure projects and other town services.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we get to the point of, \u2018Hey, the state approved this\u2019 \u2014 I can\u2019t change that,\u201d Moore said. \u201cBut I think we need to work to get as much as we possibly can for Erie.\u201d<\/p>\n

SM Energy spokeswoman Maureen O\u2019Shay declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Pursuing minerals deal, despite project concerns<\/h4>\n

The battle over the Draco pad has been swirling for years. Before the ECMC greenlighted the project in March 2025 \u2014 after postponing a decision four months earlier \u2014 Erie residents had vociferously risen up against it.<\/p>\n

The town itself issued a statement disapproving of the ECMC\u2019s decision hours after it was made.<\/p>\n

But with the approval behind it, SM Energy\u2019s\u00a0next step was to establish access to the oil and gas that lies largely beneath hundreds of Erie homes.<\/p>\n

The eventual package negotiated with SM reflected the leverage Erie gained under a recent change in state law. Under Senate Bill 24-185, which took effect in January 2025, local government-owned mineral rights cannot be force-pooled. Forced pooling allows oil and gas operators, with state approval, to combine mineral interests within a drilling area even when some owners object.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the town hired Matt Owens, the founder and CEO of Alameda Mineral Advisors, to help it hammer out a minerals access deal with the company.<\/p>\n

Owens is the former chief operating officer of Civitas Resources, an oil and gas company that joined forces with SM as part of a $12.1 billion merger earlier this year.<\/p>\n

That was a red flag for Steve Drew, a five-year Erie resident, who wondered why the town would choose a former executive of a company that would, in short order, become part and parcel of the very same operator seeking to develop Draco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why conflict of interest laws exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Owens, who wouldn\u2019t comment for this story, told the Boulder Daily Camera in June that his involvement in crafting a deal with SM Energy posed no conflict. He left Civitas in April 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no basis for anyone to complain about a (conflict) because what I am doing benefits Erie,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I do not get compensated unless Erie does, so our interests are in lockstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens could earn up to $4.5 million for his services if the deal goes forward.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement negotiated by Owens, Erie would receive a $4.5 million upfront payment and 3% royalty interest for the life of the project, which the town projected at the time of the council\u2019s vote could range from $19 million to $31 million. The royalties wouldn\u2019t kick in until SM Energy has recovered 200% of its cost to develop Draco.<\/p>\n

The agreement would also transfer roughly 160 acres of SM\u2019s land along County Line Road to the town and allow Erie staff to conduct inspections at the Draco well pad, even though it would be located outside town borders.<\/p>\n

Drew said the town never properly bid the contract before awarding it to Owens. In June, he hired an attorney to investigate how Erie ended up with Owens as its representative.<\/p>\n

The town has acknowledged it violated its purchasing policy in the way it hired Owens.<\/p>\n

Town leaders are \u201cinvestigating what led to these purchasing policy oversights and acknowledge and take responsibility for the errors,\u201d the town said on its website.<\/p>\n

Erie, Drew said, should rip up the contract and start over, not just because of how Owens was hired but because he believes the town didn\u2019t claim all of its underground minerals in its negotiations with SM Energy. The agreement stipulates that Erie will sell 180 acres of municipal mineral rights to SM \u2014 roughly 4.9% of the overall Draco drilling area.<\/p>\n

According to Erie spokeswoman Gabi Rae, a couple of parcels in the nearly 4,000-acre drilling area have \u201cunclear titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Today in History: August 2, \u2018Wild Bill\u2019 shot and killed during poker game<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe final due diligence report should give more information about ownership and sizing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t allay Drew\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you give away that potential negotiating position?\u201d he said. \u201cThis deal could have been done right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the agreement itself, some in Erie are vexed by what they say was an opaque process behind the negotiations with SM Energy, said Brecht, the special election petition organizer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this sale came into the public discussion earlier this year, the mayor framed it to the people of Erie that the town was just exploring whether it was the right option for Erie to sell, versus not sell, its minerals,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has become clear that at that point the lawyers were already negotiating the terms of the sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the early discussion took place in executive session, she said, a part of public meetings that are not open to the public. The lack of detail from town leaders \u201cleft a lot of residents frustrated,\u201d Brecht said.<\/p>\n

Leverage requires discretion, councilman argues<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s not the way Erie Councilman Brandon Bell sees it.<\/p>\n

He voted in favor of the minerals agreement, and he pushed back on the idea that the town\u2019s process was shrouded in secrecy. Executive sessions are a common tool used by elected bodies in Colorado to protect positions and leverage in sensitive negotiations, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cState law allows for executive sessions for negotiation strategies that are held in private so that those are kept from third parties,\u201d Bell said. \u201cBecause you don\u2019t want that information getting back to the people you\u2019re negotiating with, and you want to ensure that the town has the strongest position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erie, he said, has had \u201cdozens of other land deals where we\u2019ve had executive sessions.\u201d Killing the deal with SM Energy, Bell said, would still allow drilling to move forward while leaving the town holding a whole lot of nothing in exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere still is a thought that \u2026 if this petition gets brought to a vote, that it\u2019s going to stop Draco,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThe petition really just would stop the sale of the mineral rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Emily Baer voted against the agreement with SM Energy in June. There were too many unanswered questions, she said.<\/p>\n

The stipulation in the agreement allowing SM to recover twice its cost to develop Draco before Erie receives any royalty payments runs up against the hard reality that oil and gas well yields start to decline precipitously in the first couple of years of operation, she said.<\/p>\n

One industry estimate concluded that wells in the Denver-Julesburg basin lose 65% to 75% of their productivity in the first year.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the issue of Erie taking energy money in the first place, Baer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard for health and safety to rise to a level of importance when budgets, projects and services rely on oil and gas money,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it is a risk to entangle our budget with oil and gas revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baer wants to hear what residents have to say at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion,\u201d she said, \u201chaving a committed, engaged electorate that is willing to spend the time and effort to ask their fellow neighbors if they\u2019d like to have the opportunity to vote on a matter is an important part of the civic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oil and gas fights elsewhere<\/h4>\n

Potential health harms from proximity to oil and gas drilling have long been a major driver of opposition to the practice in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade ago,\u00a0Colorado voters rejected a ballot measure that would have increased the setback required for new oil and gas wells from homes. But that same 2018 election set the stage for a blue wave that ushered in Democratic state lawmakers determined to turn the tables on oil and gas regulation.<\/p>\n

The result: a new state law in 2019 that shifted the focus of the state regulators who consider drilling applications from favoring the industry to ensuring that oil and gas development doesn\u2019t harm human health and the environment.<\/p>\n

This year, the ECMC assembled a panel to review several health studies that looked at how exposure to oil and gas fracking \u2014 and some of its cancer-causing emissions, like benzene \u2014 impacted people living nearby.<\/p>\n

It spent eight months reviewing the findings and released in June. However, the report did not reach any conclusions as to whether\u00a0Colorado\u2019s rule requiring oil and gas sites to be at least 2,000 feet\u00a0from the nearest home is sufficient to protect people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Randy Willard, who has spent three years fighting drilling proposals near the Aurora Reservoir, isn\u2019t surprised the state hasn\u2019t been stricter about where energy companies can drill. He\u2019s watched both Arapahoe County and the state approve one well pad after another on a state-owned parcel next to\u00a0the reservoir and close to his Aurora neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil the ECMC has a backbone and steps up to bad actors, we won\u2019t see any change,\u201d Willard said.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t stop trying to stop drilling efforts.<\/p>\n

Just last week, Willard and his neighbors crowded a meeting of the Arapahoe County commissioners, urging them to reverse their earlier approval of a 24-well pad that will be just over half a mile from homes in Aurora\u2019s Southshore neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Willard is looking farther afield to other communities facing similar challenges. To the north of Erie, Verdad Resources submitted an application to Weld County in the spring to drill a 22-well pad near Windsor. To the south, oil giant Chevron is proposing a massive 40-well operation, dubbed Cord Federal, near U.S. 85 and East 136th Avenue, north of Commerce City.<\/p>\n

That project is being pursued by a Chevron subsidiary, PDC Energy.<\/p>\n

Just over a year ago, there was a well blowout in the Weld County town of Galeton \u2014 an incident that spewed pollutants over homes and a school for about five days. Willard said a similar accident near more densely populated communities would be exponentially more disastrous.<\/p>\n

Chevron owned the blown well in Galeton, for which it was fined $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can help them much more quickly to learn the process,\u201d Willard said of other communities being eyed by the industry. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take consistent community engagement and outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

More statehouse action?<\/h4>\n

While Moore, Erie\u2019s mayor, suspects that a vocal minority is behind the effort to crush Erie\u2019s minerals deal with SM Energy and deprive the town of millions of dollars in revenue, he shares the frustration that many town residents feel about not having the power to change the course of things.<\/p>\n

It starts with a lack of jurisdiction, he said: The drilling pad is set to be located in unincorporated Weld County, outside Erie\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because state laws are such that oil and gas operators can get permission from the state \u2014 and one county \u2014 to drill,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they can cross county lines. (SM) went outside of Erie to go under Erie. Something just feels wrong about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If state lawmakers want to help empower local communities with meaningful input on drilling decisions, he suggested, they could pass a law prohibiting cross-county access to minerals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would seem to me that we should have more say about what happens in and under our town,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

As critical as Brecht has been of Moore and his colleagues on council regarding how they went about crafting the minerals access deal with SM Energy, she agrees that local voices deserve a fuller hearing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the effort to get a measure on the ballot is all about, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn getting a voice, in getting a say in the future of our town, the people of Erie win,\u201d Brecht said. \u201cWhichever way the vote goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Latest NCAA eligibility ruling another shakeup for CU Buffs athletics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters in Erie would get the chance to overturn a controversial mineral rights deal the town hammered out with SM Energy for its oil and gas mineral rights under a new petition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nControversial mineral-access deal takes Erie\u2019s oil and gas battle to a new level: \u2018We have been fracked enough\u2019 - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3315\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Controversial mineral-access deal takes Erie\u2019s oil and gas battle to a new level: \u2018We have been fracked enough\u2019 - 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