Front Range town ends fracking moratorium, passes regulations

In a highly charged vote Tuesday night, the town's Board of Trustees decided to let a six-month moratorium on new oil and gas operations expire Monday while entering into agreements with energy producers that will place tough regulations on their operations.

Several Erie trustees hailed the agreements, known as memoranda of understanding, or MOUs, as the toughest rules yet to be placed on oil and gas operators anywhere in the country. The agreements, which involve Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Encana Oil & Gas, passed 6-1.

But dozens of residents packed Town Hall to plead with their elected leaders not to sign off on the agreements and to instead extend the moratorium until results come in from a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment air quality monitoring study being conducted at a well site near Red Hawk Elementary School.

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