Michigan energy company withdraws gas drilling application

A Traverse City company is abandoning a nearly decade-long effort to extract natural gas in  an environmentally sensitive area. 

The U.S. Forest Service says that Savoy Energy has informed federal agencies it's withdrawing an application to drill below a site called the Mason Tract in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. 

Savoy wanted to drill an exploratory well using slant drilling techniques from nearby land in national forests. Environmental groups fought the drilling plan in court. A judge ordered a complete environmental impact study in 2009, which has not been completed.