Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to trial

by: Matthew Koehler

Sun Feb 27, 2011 at 08:15:00 AM MST

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be ... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Umbra Fisk

I want to share a story of an ordinary citizen using peaceful direct action to take a stand. When Tim DeChristopher woke up one morning in December of 2008, what he was intending to do that day was disrupt a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction. He did not expect he was starting down a road that would leave him $1.7 million in debt, facing a court date and up to 10 years in jail. But Monday, Feb. 28, DeChristopher will go to trial for an unusual and profound act of creative, direct, nonviolent civil disobedience.

For DeChristopher, armchair activism wasn't enough of a response to the climate crisis. So when he heard that parcels of land were going to be rushed off for lease in an auction at the end of the Bush administration, opening them up for drilling, DeChristopher wanted to do something to stop the sale.

As a busy graduate economics student at the University of Utah, DeChristopher hadn't planned what he was going to do that day when he arrived directly after a class. The auctioneers asked if he would like to be a bidder. Thinking on his feet, he said, "Yes, I would."

Handed bidder paddle number 70, DeChristopher began bidding as soon as the auction opened. He bought more than a dozen parcels and drove up the prices of others before being stopped by a federal agent. His "purchase" totaled 22,500 acres, and effectively put a halt to the 11th-hour leases and subsequent drilling.

The auction itself was later deemed illegitimate by the Obama administration because it was conducted outside of the rules set for holding such auctions. A law known as Secretarial Order 3226 went into effect in 2001, stating that all parts of the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Land Management, have to take into account the impacts of climate change in any major decision they make involving resource extraction.

Last year, climate luminaries Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, James Hansen, Robert Redford, and Terry Tempest Williams published an open letter to support DeChristopher.

They wrote that he "pulled off one of the most creative protests against our runaway energy policy in years: he bid for the oil and gas leases on several parcels of federal land even though he had no money to pay for them, thus upending the auction. The government calls that 'violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act' and thinks he should spend ten years in jail for the crime; we call it a noble act, a profound gesture made on behalf of all of us and of the future."

If you're interested in joining the march or trial activities, you can find information for how to do that here.  Watch Solve Climate News for a series of seven interviews with Tim DeChristopher.  Contribute to Tim's legal defense at Bidder 70.

During the two years since the auction, DeChristopher's trial has been rescheduled nine times. He is heading toward the Feb. 28 date with "joy and resolve," committing to letting his position be known even in the face of significant jail time. "I have no illusions about prison being a nice place," DeChristopher told me in an interview. "But I've been very scared about my future for a long time. Throughout this I've been a lot more scared about staying on the path that we're on now than about going to prison for a couple of years," said DeChristopher.

UPDATE: The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that "Hundreds of protesters marched Monday morning from Salt Lake City's Pioneer Park to Exchange Place across the street from a federal courthouse" in support of Tim DeChristopher. "The crowd included actor-activist Daryl Hannah, who arrived in Utah over the weekend to show her support for DeChristopher. 'This is the coolest protest I've ever been at because I've never seen so many people smiling. Big love, everybody. Let's keep it going. Let's keep Tim out of jail.'" Click here for pictures of the rally.

Why I Disrupted A Fraudulent Auction

by: clifflyon

Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 09:52:57 AM MST

I have been an environmentalist for most of my life. I have marched, held signs, written letters and spoken to my Congressman. I have built trails and removed invasive species in National Parks. I have educated friends on climate change and donated to a dozen different groups. Countless others have done all these same things for decades in defense of our wilderness and a livable future.

It hasn't worked. Even with a new administration, we are not on track for a livable future. This has been made clear by James Hanson, Bill McKibben, Al Gore and many others. The legitimate pathways to power have not provided us with the ability to defend the survival of our civilization. Yesterday I decided that the crisis facing us requires more critical action than has been taken in the past. When faced with the opportunity to seriously disrupt the auction of some of our most beautiful lands in Utah to oil and gas developers, I could not ethically turn my back on that opportunity. By making bids for land that was supposed to be protected for the interests of all Americans, I tried to resist the Bush administration's attempt to defraud the American people.

At this point it appears that I was successful in my attempts to disrupt this fraudulent auction. The federal officials who took me into custody said that I cost the oil companies in the room hundreds of thousands of dollars and prevented 22,500 acres of land from being sold for fossil fuel development. I had a very open conversation with the federal agents about my motivations and values. They were friendly, respectful, and somewhat sympathetic.