Prosecutors on Friday filed a motion arguing that Tim DeChristopher, who disrupted a federal government oil and gas lease sale last year, should not be allowed to use concerns about global warming as a defense.

"In the end, it becomes clear that the defendant's hopes are to have a prominent venue for his global warming show ... " the government said in documents filed in federal court. "The public square is the proper stage for the defendant's message, not criminal proceedings in federal court."

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said a month ago that he was disinclined to allow such a defense, but asked DeChristopher's attorneys for the explanation before he ruled on a prosecution motion to block it.

DeChristopher is asking to be allowed to call expert witnesses that include NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who has been warning about greenhouse-gas emissions and climate disruption since the 1980s.

In his defense, DeChristopher also plans to draw on U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina's Jan. 17 temporary restraining order on the auction.

That ruling, in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and several other conservation and historic-preservation organizations, said the Bureau of Land Management acted illegally when it failed to properly evaluate damage to air quality, the unique character of Utah geography and potential harm to cultural resources.

DeChristopher won 14 parcels at the Dec. 19 Bureau of

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines under felony charges he organized and participated in a scheme to "defeat" federal law and made a fraudulent statement when he registered as a bidder.

Eight of the 77 oil and gas lease parcels sold during a December auction that a saboteur wrecked and a federal judge later halted will be off-limits to drilling, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has decided.

Allowing development on the 7,670 public acres near Canyonlands and Arches national parks, Desolation Canyon and Nine Mile canyon could harm critical sage-grouse habitat with little obvious benefit to oil and gas development, concluded a 39-page analysis released Thursday.

During a Washington news conference, Salazar said 52 parcels would be held back pending further study and 17 would be allowed back at upcoming auctions.

Drawing from the report -- compiled by an 11-member team from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Forest Service who examined more than 103,000 acres from the ground up -- Salazar scolded the Bush administration for allowing the Dec. 19 auction in Salt Lake City to go forward.

"The report demonstrates there was a headlong rush" to allow oil and gas companies to drill public land in areas, he said, that should not have been leased because of the ecological resources associated with them.

"It's a new day," Salazar said. "We came into the [Interior Department] on a reform agenda. It's a new beginning for us on how we deal with public lands and energy and our oil and gas leases. ... We'll continue to develop oil and gas in the right way."

Conservationists lauded the report.

"The report is a firm rejection of the 'drill here, drill now' policies of the Bush administration," said Steve Bloch, an attorney and conservation director with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, one of 11 conservation and historic-preservation organizations that sued to stop the auction. "It confirmed our belief that the December 2008 lease sale was a rushed approach to sell off some of America's most iconic landscapes."

The Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States said the Interior Department "chose redundant analysis over domestic energy development" and argued all 77 leases should be reinstated.

The Interior report found that field BLM office employees at times believed they were required by law to give greater deference to mineral-leasing proposals than to protection of other land uses.

"[The team members] don't think that anyone acted nefariously or did anything wrong," Salazar said. "But the fact is that our system's been set up in a way where the information that's made available to the BLM decision-makers is not very complete."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, interpreted its findings as a vindication of the BLM. Bennett had demanded the report as a condition for releasing a hold on confirmation hearings for Interior Deputy Director David Hayes earlier this year.

"This report proves what I've been saying all along -- that the Utah BLM office followed the proper procedures for reviewing the proposed lease parcels that were sold last year," Bennett said in a statement. "This report illustrates that rules only matter to [the Obama] administration when they produce certain results."

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said that while he respects the report's authors, "their findings are insulting. If the policy of the Obama administration is to not develop America's energy resources, just come out and say it."

The 52 delayed leases will be studied to determine whether they can be developed in a way that takes into account drilling proposals and other resources, including wildlife, scenic values, ancient ruins and rock art, water and air quality and recreation.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said in a statement that "development of oil and gas on public lands should take a balanced approach, rather than the all-or-nothing dynamic that we've seen recently, "adding that he would like to see the 52 parcels reviewed in a timely manner.

The federal team spent nine days in southeastern Utah's desert, logging 14-hour days to test assumptions Utah BLM officials made.

"It has been a laboratory of learning," said Salazar, who promised reforms and a secretarial order in 30 days on how to proceed with public-land energy development.

The sale was the subject of a lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina when a University of Utah student, Tim DeChristopher, disrupted the auction by bidding and winning 14 parcels with no intention of paying, saying it was an act of civil disobedience to stop an illegal sale. He faces two felony charges.

The lawsuit has since widened to examine the resource-management plans finalized only days before the auction that allowed the leasing to go forward. Salazar said Urbina's rulings, including a temporary restraining order, indicated the BLM didn't properly follow federal law.

The 77 government-owned parcels, covering some 100,000 acres in eastern and southern Utah, were leased in the last weeks of the Bush administration. But the leases were immediately challenged by conservation groups, and in January a federal judge blocked drilling on the ground that the Interior Department had failed to follow its own procedures for reviewing the appropriateness of lands designated for oil and gas extraction.

An Interior Department review team then presented Secretary Ken Salazar with a recommendation that drilling be allowed to proceed on 17 of the 77 parcels. But it also said that the leases on eight parcels should be withdrawn and that 52 should be subjected to further study because of potential threats to wildlife and air and water quality.

In announcing Thursday that he had accepted those recommendations, Mr. Salazar said there was a “headlong rush” at the end of the Bush administration to lease the sites, without proper attention to environmental and aesthetic concerns. Some of the parcels are near Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.

The report of the review team “helps clear off the cloud that has hung over these 77 parcels since they were first proposed,” Mr. Salazar said, “and includes site-specific decisions on which should be leased and which — such as those near national parks — are simply not appropriate for development.”

In recommending lease withdrawal or further study for 60 of the parcels, the review team gave a variety of reasons, including possible damage to the habitat of sage grouse, which is being considered for endangered species protection, and to avoid the dust and noise pollution associated with drilling operations.

Conservation groups that had sued to block the leases applauded Mr. Salazar for weighing environmental effects in reconsidering the actions of the Bush administration. They expressed relief that most of the potential drilling sites would receive further scrutiny, and said they hoped that the leases on those sites would ultimately be withdrawn as well.

“Stopping the leasing of these treasured lands to protect them from devastation by oil and gas companies was the right thing to do,” said Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The Department of Interior should move forward with clean energy solutions that will protect our pristine wild lands and vital wildlife areas and cut carbon pollution.”

Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the chief trade group for the industry, criticized the action, saying it was one of a series by the Obama administration to thwart oil and gas development.

“This troubling trend means less revenue to federal, state and local governments at a time when our nation is running a record deficit,” Mr. Gerard said. “It also means fewer jobs at a time our nation is headed toward 10 percent unemployment, and it means less domestic energy available when our economy recovers and demand rebounds.”

SALT LAKE CITY — They want to drag Global Warming in front of a jury. Environmentalists want Global Warming in shackles, hangdog, beaten, with lawyers flipping through horrific pics of hurricanes slapping at South Asian shanties saying: “See?! He’s a menace to society and he needs to be put away!” They want to charge Global Warming with crimes against humanity.

That has never happened, and it seemed like a receding goal after a federal judge dented – but didn’t completely smash – one man’s hopes of putting Global Warming on trial … and also nicked that man’s hopes of keeping himself out of the big house.

In a hearing at the federal courthouse here, Judge Dee Benson heard arguments about whether Tim DeChristopher could put on a “choice of evils” defense, a legal maneuver usually reserved for Lifetime movies of the week. We’ve written about all this before.

Why is DeChristopher, a soft-spoken economics student at the University of Utah, in this mess? Because, in the waning days of the Bush Administration, he waltzed into an oil and gas lease auction and bought up $1.7 million worth of drilling rights. His sabotage delayed the auction long enough for Obama to get into office and revoke most of the parcels DeChristopher bought. Which, in the minds of DeChristopher’s supporters, saved the land and reduced Global Warming (a little tiny itty bitty bit), and so his misdeed was justified, they contend – like busting out of a burning prison, or shattering a window to rescue a baby locked in a car on a sunny day.

The government lawyer called bull-ony, as John Huber tried to block the “choice of evils” defense, along with any talk of science.

“Even if they can call experts, from Al Gore to Einstein, to say whatever they want to say,” Huber told the judge, “they have to show there was a real and imminent danger.” I wondered how they planned to get Einstein to answer a subpoena. But climate change, Huber said, is happening on “geologic time.” It’s not like a bus barreling down on you, in other words. It’s more like the way California is sinking into the ocean.

The judge said he was inclined not to let the “choice of evils” defense in, or “open this courtroom to a lengthy hearing on global warming.” How far do you go? he asked. Would it be OK for someone to stop a moving car – one that’s belching out CO2 – and destroy it? Think of the mayhem that opens up. The judge seemed to want to deal only with the facts of that day, but he gave DeChristopher’s lawyers 30 days to make a written case for the “choice of evils” defense.  

It was a hearing filled with big ideas and big rhetoric – the judge and DeChristopher’s lawyer even sparred on the meaning of the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison – but it seemed like the judge wanted to send the case down a path toward a run-of-the-mill fraud prosecution, which would be a serious downer for:

A) Anybody who likes a good circus trial.

B) This 27-year-old kid who could get 10 years in the joint.

C) Anyone who wants Global Warming acknowledged as a fact by a court of law.

See, Global Warming is this amorphous thing. Global Warming can’t put a tie on and sit on the stand.

DeChristopher can. (He seems to have only one suit, but he wears it well.) And he’s willing to do it. The government’s lawyers say he’s just doing this for attention, and they’re partly right. Cameras crowded around him outside the courthouse, reporters scribbled furiously. He wants to draw attention to climate change, whatever way he can.  

If Global Warming did show up to court, what would he look like? A big gas ball shooting flames out of one hand and rain out the other? A phantom drowning Bangladeshi goats who can only be slowed by hippies and yuppies firing low-flow toilets and Sigg water bottles at him?

If he gets his way, Global Warming could battle a masked DeChristopher – devouring IPCC reports the way Popeye ate spinach, flinging legal briefs and economic algorithms like Mr. Freeze shot ice. (Is this over the top? Nah. It was a day of hyperbole. DeChristopher is just a college kid, and yet his fast-talking lawyer compared him to Rosa Parks and Saint Francis of Assisi, and so painting him as a Batman character doesn’t seem a stretch.)

Of course, the real world is not a comic book. Global Warming, said one of DeChristopher’s lawyers, Patrick Shea, is made up of calculus equations and detailed observations. It’s not a simple thing. So Shea wants to show a jury a DVD of ice floes breaking up, to get them to concede that Global Warming is a threat. If they can get Global Warming into a courtroom as a fact to be discussed, he confirmed to me, they might be able to get that fact used in other, bigger, more important cases, and build a legal basis for people to combat climate change.

But will they get Global Warming into cuffs?

Said the judge: “I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope.”

– Reilly Capps is a writer who can be reached at reillycapps@gmail.com.

By Christopher Smart

In the court of public opinion, Tim DeChristopher always has argued that he monkey-wrenched an oil and gas lease auction to combat the global climate crisis.

Now he wants to make that argument in federal court.

Attorneys for the University of Utah economics major have filed papers in U.S. District Court contending a federal judge should reject a government motion and allow their client to use his battle against global warming as a defense against two felony charges.

"The government is not entitled by way of motion to invade DeChristopher's attorney-client privileges," wrote the defense counsel, "or to violate his Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment rights to prepare his defense to serious criminal charges."

In a separate motion, DeChristopher's legal team is seeking information from federal prosecutors about whether other individuals or corporations ever had failed to pay for oil and gas lease bids and whether any of them were prosecuted.

Defense lawyer Pat Shea, who oversaw the Bureau of Land Management during the Clinton administration, said Tuesday the Constitution guarantees his client a "full and complete defense, rather than a trimmed defense when the trimming is done by the government."

DeChristopher pleaded not guilty in April to a two-count federal indictment stemming from a Dec. 19, 2008, BLM oil and gas lease auction in which he offered a total of $1.8 million -- admittedly with no intention of paying the money -- to win bids on 14 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

In May, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman filed a 27-page motion in federal court, arguing that a civil-disobedience defense --- such as fighting the climate crisis -- would inflame a jury and serve only to urge those empaneled not to follow the law.

"Accordingly, at trial," the prosecutor's motion states, "defense counsel should focus the jury's attention on facts and not try to confuse it with appeals based on emotion, sympathy or other similar conclusions."

Some legal experts have said the government is trying to wipe out the civil-disobedience defense because it fears some jurors would side with DeChristopher -- despite his acknowledgement that he placed bogus bids on the parcels.

At the same time, without that defense, experts have said the U. student may not stand a chance against the charges.

Shea said federal prosecutors have the burden to prove DeChristopher's guilt.

"They want a straight rendition of the facts that transpired on Dec. 19, 2008," Shea said. "We want a contextual examination of those events within the parameters of global warming."

The U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

A hearing on the motion is set for Sept. 25 before U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City. A trial date is not yet scheduled.

csmart@sltrib.com

Tribune reporter Patty Henetz contributed to this story.

Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who disrupted a federal oil and gas lease auction to protest potential environmental harm, now is scheduled to face a jury in late summer.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson has pushed back the trial, initially set to begin July 6, to Sept. 14 to give DeChristopher's lawyers more time to prepare for the case.

Defense attorneys Ron Yengich and Pat Shea face a Monday deadline to a federal prosecutor's motion that says they shouldn't be allowed to argue DeChristopher made bogus bids on oil and gas leases to combat the climate crisis. The reason, some legal experts assert, is the fear some jurors may buy his argument.

DeChristopher's lawyers had told the U.S. Attorney's Office they would base their arguments on a defense commonly known as "necessity" or "choice of evils."

The prosecution countered that such a defense would "encourage improper jury nullification." That means a jury could acquit DeChristopher regardless of his admission that he foiled the lease sale on purpose.

On Friday, DeChristopher said he looks forward to a jury trial. "There's a lot of injustice that needs to be brought to the surface regarding this oil and gas auction."

The U. economics major monkey-wrenched a U.S. Bureau of Land Management auction Dec. 19 in Salt Lake City. After he bid $1.8 million to win 14 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands national parks and drove up offers on several others, BLM agents removed him from the auction room for questioning.

DeChristopher, who has become a folk hero to many since the lease sale, acknowledged his false bidding, saying it was an act of civil disobedience in protest of Bush administration oil and gas policies that have worsened global climate disruption and threatened the health of everyone on the planet.

On April 1, a federal jury handed up a two-count felony indictment against him for violating the terms of the auction he promised to observe when he signed up to bid. He pleaded not guilty at his April 28 arraignment.

But those concerns, he emphasized, do not eclipse his fears that inaction and apathy will lead to global, environmental degradation making the earth unlivable for future generations.

"Until Brett Tolman (the U.S. Attorney for Utah) can start dishing out penalties" on that level, DeChristopher vowed in front of enthusiastic supporters that "I am not going to back down."

With that, DeChristopher walked to the federal court house on Tuesday to make his first appearance on a pair of felonies that carry a potential of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.

He pleaded not guilty, even though he has unabashedly admitted to crowds he deliberately "monkey-wrenched" a BLM auction of oil and gas leases last December as a matter of protest.

His actions, which earned him an escort by police and the designation as poster boy for acts of civil disobedience, also cultivated a cult following of sorts evidenced by the crowd of at least 200 attending a rally in his support.

"I think he's damn wonderful," declared one faithful supporter.

A banner stretched across the Main Library's plaza, declaring "Climate Justice is Survival: Now or Never."

Supporters carried signs with the number "70" — DeChristopher's bid number during the December auction in which the University of Utah student successfully bid on more than a dozen parcels.

For that, prosecutors filed one count of violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act. In his registration for the auction, DeChristopher also signed off on paperwork that misrepresented his intentions, according to charges. That resulted in one count of making a false statement.

At the rally, DeChristopher said the charges were meant to intimidate others from protest.

"They're trying to discourage you from resisting this path of destruction we're on," he said. "You might give up because there might be consequences," pointing out it is a "naive view to think we are going to give up."

Salt Laker Gary Widdison turned out to support DeChristopher at the rally, saying the university student is a tempest for the voice of protest linked to environmental awareness.

"There's been a real lack of awareness in this country and in our own community about the urgency of the global warming problem," Widdison said. "He's caught a lot of people's imagination and has drawn attention to something that is easily ignored."

Ashley Anderson, a fellow U. student, told the crowd that "we are all bidder 70. This isn't just about an auction, beautiful land and a mean old attorney," he said. "This is something much bigger. … This is a story about inspiration."

Later in court, federal prosecutor John Huber asked that DeChristopher be ordered to surrender his passport. Additional pretrial restrictions include possession of a firearm, which is routine.

Also routine for such appearances came the warning from Judge David Nuffer that communications between DeChristopher and anyone other than his attorneys could be used in his prosecution. That was just minutes after his impassioned speech at the library to supporters, many of whom sat on hard courtroom benches to listen to the charges.

A five-day trial was set to begin July 6.

Tim DeChristopher pleaded "not guilty" Tuesday to disrupting a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in December and pledged to use his prosecution to attack policies he says are allowing climate change to careen out of control.

About 200 supporters rallied for the 27-year-old University of Utah student at the downtown Salt Lake City library and marched with him to the federal courthouse, where he was arraigned and his weeklong trial was scheduled to begin July 6.

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison but he told his supporters that those consequences did not compare with the starvation and homelessness millions will suffer around the world if climate change is not stopped.

"Until [U.S. Attorney for Utah] Brett Tolman can start dishing out punishment penalties like that, I'm not going to back down, and I need to know you are not going to back down, either," he told a cheering crowd.

A grand jury indicted DeChristopher on two felony counts in connection with his bogus bid on oil and gas leases. He submitted winning bids on 13 parcels, though he never intended to pay the $1.8 million owed.

The two counts -- interfering with an auction with intent to "defeat" the federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act, and making false and fraudulent representations when registering for an auction -- also carry a $750,000 fine.

"They're trying to scare all of you," he told the crowd, many of them carrying

posters with his bidder number, 70. "They're trying to discourage all of you from standing up."

As DeChristopher walked to the courthouse at the head of a line of supporters, climate scientist James E. Hansen of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration walked alongside him much of the way. Hansen called DeChristopher's actions "extremely important." Hansen thanked him for providing a platform to test a new legal argument regarding climate change: the notion described in a letter by Thomas Jefferson that "we are using property that belongs to others, to our children and grandchildren and future generations."

Despite protesters' assertion that the case is about larger principles, Utah Petroleum Association President Lee Peacock says it's simply about rules and fairness.

"We abide by the rules that are in place," Peacock said of industry bidders. "We feel like all sides of any particular issue ought to abide by the rules."

He would not comment about DeChristopher's pleas, other than to say they did not surprise him.

Critics have said DeChristopher sabotaged a legal federal proceeding and deprived legitimate bidders of their right to secure leases. Supporters of DeChristopher point out that the lease sale was later halted by a federal judge and 77 of the most disputed parcel leases were halted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Before starting off on the march to the federal courthouse, DeChristopher attorney Pat Shea urged everyone to obey traffic laws and behave once they reached the courthouse. Inside the courtroom, dozens watched silently.

Shea, a former BLM director under President Clinton, will be joined in DeChristopher's defense by noted defense attorney Ron Yengich.

At the prosecution's request, Magistrate Judge David Nuffer ordered DeChristopher to remain in the United States until his trial, and to surrender his passport to Yengich until further notice. He also set June 22 as deadline for any plea agreement.

Federal prosecutor John Huber said he saw the protest marchers before the arraignment, but he would not comment about their action or the case.

After the arraignment, Shea declined to discuss how the team will defend a man who admits disrupting the auction.

"That'll come out with trial," he said.

Shea told supporters after the court appearance that DeChristopher was meeting with a probation officer and getting fingerprinted. The attorney urged supporters to keep up their efforts. "We're going to have a long march."

Kelli Bellon of Salt Lake City was protesting outside the BLM offices Dec. 19, the day DeChristopher bid on the 13 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands

national parks.

"I can't imagine not being supportive of Tim after he's gone out on a limb for us," said the mother of two. "It's huge that he's being prosecuted."

University of Utah economics professor Hans Ehrbar said he was disappointed that more supporters didn't show up Tuesday.

"People are ready to clap if someone else acts, but the urgency has not yet sunk in."

I love bombast. And the apotheosis of my ardor is never more exquisitely achieved than when said affectation incorporates the perfect balance of sound and cadence, while laced with a patina of profanity. Though it would arguably be easy to view bombast as a writing style unto itself, sometimes one can achieve rank bombasticity in a single utterance. And no word reaches the soaring heights I am describing better than the king of all such expressions—ladies and gentlemen, tendered for your approval, the timeless classic—clusterfuck.

For the uninitiated, perhaps a quick definition is in order:

clusterfuck (plural clusterfucks)

1. (vulgar) A chaotic mess that might be compared to group sex, in which participants are so intertwined and intermingled that they might penetrate each other rather than their intended target. Its more precise usage describes a particular kind of Catch-22, in which multiple complicated problems mutually interfere with each other's solution. The looser usage, referring to any chaotic situation, probably prevails.

It bears mentioning that any clusterfuck is subject to the Law of Governmental Presence, which states that any garden variety clusterfuck is prone to inflate to epic proportion when conducted within eight nautical miles of any governmental agency, body, or representative. Given that the word probably traces its etymology to the military that almost stands to reason.

Lest there be any confusion, the term is oftentimes misunderstood. To prevent needless uncertainty as to when you’ve encountered a clusterfuck, let’s look at some related concepts.

For instance, a clusterfuck isn’t necessarily a disaster, although a series of ever-expanding clusterfucks can most definitely engender disaster (See Bush, George W.) A clusterfuck also isn’t the same as a shit storm, which is really nothing more than a small bunch of clusterfucks on their way to becoming a disaster. (For further clarification, see TARP. No, not the large sheet of waterproof material. The other one, the one with the bailout.)

The best way to appreciate a clusterfuck is to examine one. Here’s a great case in point: last December, the Bush administration conducted the functional equivalent of a fire sale of leases for oil and gas exploration in the southern and eastern parts of the state of Utah. Above and beyond the speed at which the auction was set up, a rate which didn’t allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s that are federally mandated in situations just like this, the scope of the sale was exceptionally broad. Buckling to pressure from a raft of environmental groups, the BLM reduced its initial offering and agreed to auction off only 150,000 acres of land.

Despite this magnanimous concession, the proposed sale was pilloried as a direct threat to certain pristine areas of the state. Areas that abutted national parks and red rock desert. Plots of land that could arguably be labeled sui generis. (Nothing screams ‘bombast’ quite like a well placed Latin phrase, does it?)

On the day of the auction, a 27 year-old economics student named Tim DeChristopher attended a protest march of the BLM sale. Sensing resigned despair in his fellow protesters, in a fit of anti-authoritarian brio DeChristopher decided to infiltrate the auction as a means of disrupting what he viewed to be not only a fraudulent sale, but one that would irretrievably damage national natural treasures.

Surprisingly for DeChristopher, gaining access to the proceedings proved to be relatively easy. Consistent with general clusterfuck theory, the BLM was in such a hurry to conduct this auction they neglected to enforce the standard security measures typically required. Tim showed his driver’s license, filled out a small form, was given a bidder’s paddle, and escorted in. (Personally, I can’t believe they didn’t make him at least demonstrate the Vulcan death grip or something.)

Once inside, Tim witnessed the auction process and soon was actually driving up the cost on parcels of land merely by waving his bidder’s paddle. But because his mission was to save the land, not just cost the cadre of oil and gas interests more money to have a shot at drilling and exploration, he decided to bring his ‘A’ game—Tim was in it to win it, as they say.

Which is exactly what he did. Tim proceeded to win 13 bids, totaling 22,000 acres, at a cost of $1.8 million. Then he was detained by the authorities because even they have limits as to how much they can and will contribute to a clusterfuck. (According to Tim, once apprehended, the officer who treated him most brusquely was a mall cop who worked in the building where the BLM office is housed, which only deepens my appreciation for the verisimilitude of that Paul Blart movie.)

Public support sprung up for Tim faster than an oil speculator at a hastily prepared sale of oil and gas leases. Within a very short time, he was able to raise $100,000 through his website, www.Bidder70.org, to cover the cost of the initial payment to the BLM for the leases in question, as well as for what was sure to involve legal defense costs.

Then on February 4^th, in a move that to the casual observer appears to run contrary to the concept of the clusterfuck, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar invalidated the oil and gas leases that had been auctioned off, which for all intents and purposes could arguably be construed as the government’s admission of “my bad.”

But keep your eye on the bouncing ball, folks, because part of what defines a clusterfuck is the momentary appearance that sanity has taken hold, which is exactly what happened here. The leases in question were voided. A single person with more heart than all the people in the auction that day felled the Goliath that is the oil and gas industry not with a slingshot and stone but instead with a bidder’s paddle and a flick of his wrist. Nothing was destroyed, defiled, or otherwise desecrated. Unless of course you count the derailed locomotive of greed embodied by the oil and gas industries that were there expecting uncontested whacks at the piñata placed so generously before them by the Bush administration.

So where, pray tell, is the clusterfuck?

In what has to be an example of the worst April Fool’s joke imaginable, on April 1, Tim was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah for two counts of violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Act. (A lesser charge of wearing a flannel shirt to a government auction was considered but dropped.)

Let’s pause for a moment to review, shall we? The government conducts a highly questionable sale of oil and gas leases that it ultimately voids, yet later they decide to criminally prosecute the man who provided them the opportunity to reconsider and correct their reckless conduct by wielding a bidder’s paddle? (Paging a Mr. Kafka, Mr. Franz Kafla!)

And then in a move that redefines craptacular, on April 3, the BLM levied an $81,000 fine against Tim. Mind you, this is the same BLM that refused Tim’s payment of $45,000 dollars on the fraudulent bids he made because those payments were offered “too late.”

Right about now you’re asking yourself “what’s that smell?” It’s not teen spirit, and it’s not napalm in the morning—it’s a Clusterfuck, with a capital C. Said Clusterfuck will reach its surreal denouement on April 28 when Tim is arraigned.

Now it’s safe to say that we as a nation have become used to diminished expectations. Even with the election of a man who is actually qualified to run the country, we know better than to expect much that even remotely approaches positive from our government and its agencies. But what we can’t condone is when our government is guilty of what in its best light looks like malfeasance, especially when they are given a chance to grant themselves a reprieve by a citizen who has the balls, heart, and spirit to act consonant with his moral compass, a device conspicuously not consulted in the government’s decision making process.

I have given up expecting bureaucracies like the BLM to actually do that which they are created to, which in this case is manage federal energy sources in an environmentally sound way. (My italics.) What galls me most deeply is the wholesale lack of respect for resources present in this case. (Um, I don’t know whose italics those are.) And by resources, the untapped oil and gas that lies beneath the ground in Utah aren’t all I am referring to. I am talking about the very real, immeasurable and invaluable human resource of people like Tim DeChistopher! (OK, that’s definitely my exclamation point.)

If we are ever going to extricate ourselves from the wringer we have wedged ourselves into, we need people like Tim DeChristopher—inventive, committed, and

compassionate—not in jail, his contributions to society neutralized, while sapping limited resources by being incarcerated—but in the vanguard of the vital democracy we remember ourselves to be.

It’s been said that two wrongs don’t make a right. This case proves an exception to that rule. The BLM failed in its responsibility to adhere to federally imposed environmental guidelines before holding the auction. Tim, by his own admission, represented himself to be a qualified bidder, which he wasn’t. When the Department of the Interior voided the sale, the two negatives perpetrated by both parties multiplied to create a positive—the lands in question are safe for the time being. The decision to prosecute Tim is the perfect final touch for those who like a little closure with their clusterfuck. That Brett Tolman, the U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting this case, wants to participate in some perverse act of reverse-alchemy by spinning political straw out of environmental gold is regrettable. The real focus is on what we do to support Tim in this scenario.

Tim told me that what moved him to act as he did was the realization that he could actually handle serving time to save the imperiled lands. What he couldn’t live with was waking up ten years down the road, seeing those lands ransacked by the oil and gas industries, and live with the knowledge that he had the chance to do something about it and didn’t.

Well, we have a chance to endorse Tim right here, right now. Go to www.Bidder70.org. Make a donation, write your representative. And if that leaves you feeling like you want to do more, then go to www.PeacefulUprising.org and really throw your oars in the water. To do anything less is beyond wrong—it’s clusterfucked.

Michael Raysses is a writer/actor/National Public Radio commentator living in Los Angeles. E-mail him at MichaelRaysses@hotmail.com. For information on Tim DeChristopher, go to www.Bidder70.org. Tim will be arraigned on Tuesday April 28, at 11:am in Salt Lake City. He faces up to ten years in Prison. Former Director of NASA Dr. James Hansen will testify on Tim's behalf.

SALT LAKE CITY — James Hansen (Sixty Minutes interview), one of the world’s leading scientists studying climate change, will speak at a rally in support of Tim DeChristopher on Tuesday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Salt Lake City library plaza.(map)

The event is built around DeChristopher’s arraignment at 11:45 a.m. at the Frank E. Moss Courthouse in Salt Lake City. The University of Utah student is facing two felony charges for his nonviolent disruption of an illegitimate oil and gas lease auction of public land in Utah last December.

Even though a federal court and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar rescinded the auction because of its illegitimacy, Brett Tolman, the United States attorney for Utah, has decided to charge DeChristopher with two felonies, which could mean up to 10 years in prison.

Schedule of the events with Hansen and DeChristopher:

Monday, 6 p.m.:          Hansen talks with Radioactive, KRCL’s public affairs program.

Monday, 7:30 p.m.:     Hansen will speak at U of U’s Social and Behavioral Science auditorium

Tuesday, 11 a.m.:       Rally begins with speakers and music at the SLC Library Plaza.

Tuesday, 11:30 a.m.:  March (route) to Frank E. Moss Courthouse for DeChristopher’s arraignment.

Tuesday, about noon: Hansen will speak at rally for DeChristopher at the SLC Library Plaza.

Tuesday, 6 p.m.:        Hansen will speak at Utah Valley University in the library auditorium (map).

...........................................................................................................................................

Tim DeChristopher is the University of Utah student is facing two felony charges for his nonviolent disruption of an illegitimate oil and gas lease auction of public land in Utah last December.

Even though a federal court and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar rescinded the auction because of its illegitimacy, Brett Tolman, the United States attorney for Utah, has decided to charge DeChristopher with two felonies, which could mean up to 10 years in prison.

Paul Foy
Business Writer
The Associated Press
Salt Lake City
Office 801-322-3405
Cell 801-450-1224

Prosecutor: Monkey-wrencher won't do long prison time

'Curious' case » 'That's good news,' says DeChristopher, whose clean record would help if he is convicted.

By Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:04/03/2009 08:08:32 PM MDT

 Tim DeChristopher has no chance of serving 10 years in federal prison for monkey-wrenching an oil and gas lease sale as an act of civil disobedience.

So says his prosecutor, who predicts the University of Utah student won't even serve five years if convicted of two felonies for placing bogus bids at a December auction.

In a rare interview about a pending case, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said Friday he already is talking plea deals with DeChristopher's lawyers -- something he maintains had to wait until the grand jury handed up Wednesday's indictment.

"There's a perception of heavy-handedness," Tolman said. But since DeChristopher has no criminal record, he added, "I don't think he'll get anywhere near five years."

While any sentence would be up to a judge, the prosecutor said maximum punishments are rare -- especially for defendants with clean slates.

"That's good news," DeChristopher said Friday.

But the environmental activist re-emphasized that he has been bracing for punishment since he picked up paddle No. 70 and proceeded to win bids on 14 parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million for them.

DeChristopher has trumpeted all along that he intended to short-circuit the Salt Lake City auction to prevent oil and gas drilling near Utah national parks and to bring attention to larger global issues.

"I feel very strongly about the threat to our participatory democracy," he said. "Defending our democracy is certainly something worth going to prison for -- as is defending our climate."

During Friday's interview in his Salt Lake City office, Tolman sought to tamp any notion that prosecuting the 27-year-old economics major is politically motivated.

"The easy road was not to prosecute. The political road was not to prosecute. If we chose not to prosecute," he said, "we would have been caving to strong political pressure."

The prosecutor, a Bush appointee who has been U.S. attorney for Utah since October 2006, said rumors are circulating about his future and a potential political campaign.

"I'm not running for Congress," Tolman insisted. "I'm trying to do this job, and make decisions that are based solely on facts and the law."

Some wonder why DeChristopher is being prosecuted at all since Interior Secretary Ken Salazar shelved 77 of the lease parcels offered in the Dec. 19 auction. Before that, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina enjoined the Bureau of Land Management from leasing those parcels under a lawsuit filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and several other conservation and historic-preservation groups.

Tolman said he couldn't take those developments into consideration in the case. Rather, he said, he had to apply federal law and measure the defendant's intent.

Oil and gas bidders have complained that DeChristopher's actions harmed them financially, but Tolman said even that doesn't matter. "There could be no damage, [but] still criminal violations."

Now that the charges have come and DeChristopher's arraignment has been set for April 28, Tolman said he can negotiate with the U. student's lawyers: Pat Shea, a former BLM director, and Ron Yengich, a prominent Utah defense attorney.

Shea wouldn't comment Friday on any deal discussions, but questioned why Tolman was talking about sentences when they are a judge's job.

"To quote 'Alice in Wonderland,'" he said, "the story gets curiouser and curiouser."
Court date looms

Indicted monkey-wrencher Tim DeChristopher's arraignment is scheduled for April 28 in Salt Lake City's federal court.

Drilling » U. student hoped for mercy from Obama's team, but no luck.

By Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune Posted: 04/01/2009 08:41:01 PM MDT

Tim DeChristopher -- the monkey-wrenching University of Utah student who caused an environmental sensation by disrupting a high-profile oil and gas lease auction -- pinned his hopes on President Barack Obama to get him out of trouble.

But shortly after a federal grand jury handed up a two-count felony indictment Wednesday against the 27-year-old economics major, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar crushed any notion of help from Washington.

The Bureau of Land Management, Salazar warned, "will not tolerate future conduct which undermines the integrity of the bid process."

DeChristopher said he didn't regret bidding on 13 drilling parcels near Arches and Canyonlands with no intention of paying the $1.8 million for them. But he did believe the Obama administration might see the seriousness and morality of his mission to protect the future against global climate disruption.

"Those hopes were misplaced," he said. "Now my hopes rest on a jury of my peers."

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines under charges he organized and participated in a scheme to "defeat" federal law and made a fraudulent statement when he registered as a bidder at the BLM's Dec. 19 lease sale in Salt Lake City.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said that, while he recognized people may have deeply held views on government behavior, they should express them lawfully.

"Rather than follow the rule of law, this defendant has, in his own words, repeatedly said he intended to disrupt the lease-bidding process," Tolman said. "Today's indictment is our response to his decision."

On the day of the auction, DeChristopher signed a bidder-registration form that warned it is a federal crime to "knowingly and willfully make any false, fictitious or fraudulent statements" and cited the maximum penalties: up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"DeChristopher represented himself as a bona fide bidder," Tolman said, "when in fact he was not."

In addition to being charged with filing a false bidder form, DeChristopher is accused of violating the federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987, which set up rules for competitive bidding.

DeChristopher remains free, and Tolman has yet to issue a summons for his arraignment. His lawyers are noted Utah defense attorney Ron Yengich and Pat Shea, a BLM director under the Clinton administration.

Shea, who will continue to seek a plea deal, said he knew of previous instances in which individuals didn't pay up for their bids. "To my knowledge," he said, "there were no prosecutions."

The December auction had been in an uproar since Election Day, when the BLM posted a list of sales covering 360,000 acres of southern and eastern Utah redrock desert. The agency pulled some of the most disputed parcels. But conservation organizations said 77 parcels on 103,000 acres still were too close to Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument and relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon.

A federal judge stopped the BLM from proceeding on those leases, and Salazar shelved them in February, accusing the Bush administration of rushing in its final days to drill. Salazar said Obama's Interior Department wants a more balanced approach that takes in environmental concerns along with petroleum industry needs.

But Salazar showed no mercy when it came to DeChristopher's bogus bidding.

"The indictment announced today contains serious allegations of fraud by a bidder in a BLM oil and gas lease sale," the Interior boss said. "In order to have a fair and orderly process for these sales, it is essential that all participants follow the prescribed rules."

DeChristopher, who has catapulted to folk-hero fame in environmental circles, said he didn't oppose oil and gas development on principle but did take a stand against harming sensitive public lands.

"This auction was a fraud against the American public and a threat to my future," he said. "My action exposed the unjust nature of that auction."

An industry representative said she has heard the same argument many times.

"There's a perception that natural-gas development in Utah is going to destroy the land, and that drastic action is necessary," said Kathleen Sgamma, government-affairs director for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States. "If he understood that it's a small and temporary impact, and that the land is reclaimed to its original state, then maybe he wouldn't have felt compelled to take this action."
A monkey-wrencher's tale

At a Dec. 19 auction, Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah economics student, bid on 13 oil and gas lease parcels covering 22,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands with no intention of paying.

On Feb. 4, President Barack Obama's Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, shelved 77 contested lease parcels, including the ones DeChristopher won, and scolded the Bush administration for rushing reviews of the disputed sites.

On Wednesday, DeChristopher was indicted on two felony counts. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Did DeChristopher's outspokenness seal his fate?

Monkey-wrencher » Supporters say he had to speak out -- that was the whole point -- even at the risk of charges.

By Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted:04/02/2009 09:15:01 PM MDT - print version 30 days

All along, Tim DeChristopher has acknowledged -- some say bragged about -- placing bogus bids at a federal lease auction in an attempt to thwart oil and gas drilling near Utah national parks.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman even pointed to DeChristopher's public remarks in announcing a two-count felony indictment Wednesday against the 27-year-old University of Utah economics major.

So should DeChristopher, who has risen to folk-hero status among some in the green community, have avoided the limelight after winning bids on 13 parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million he owed for them?

No, his supporters say. The monkey-wrenching activist's outspokenness was necessary, they argue, to focus attention on the larger threat of global climate disruption and Bush administration energy policies that they say favored the wealthy few at the expense of children not yet born.

"I saw Tim's peaceful act of resistance as the only real action to create a livable future," said Ashley Anderson, 30, a U. student. "Peaceful resistance, civil disobedience, have always been a hallmark of effective and essential change in our society. The stakes now are indeed the fate of the planet."

DeChristopher has always said that placard-waving protests are not enough and that he took his actions to help save the environment and future generations. Now he faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines on charges he plotted and participated in a scheme to "defeat" federal law and made a fraudulent statement when he registered as a bidder at the BLM's Dec. 19 lease sale in Salt Lake City.

His arraignment has been set for April 28 before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Nuffer in Salt Lake City's federal court.

Fellow student Jessi Carrier, 23, is one of about 30 of DeChristopher's friends and supporters in the group PeacefulUprising.org who stayed up late Wednesday to talk about the politics of Tolman's move, which Interior Secretary Ken Salazar buttressed with a hard-line statement about observing the rule of law.

"We didn't spend too much time talking about the indictment. Tim is part of the group, not the whole of the group," Carrier said. "Environmentalism in the past has focused on the scenic wildness of the land. We're talking about humans' dependence on the environment for survival."

In a statement Wednesday evening, Salazar noted the "serious allegations of fraud by a bidder in a BLM oil and gas lease sale. ... BLM will not tolerate future conduct which undermines the integrity of the bid process."

But President Barack Obama's Interior secretary also has made serious allegations against Bush policies, which allowed the December auction to go forward. Salazar shelved 77 of the most-disputed parcels for further study.

A federal judge who halted progress on the lease sale indicated in his ruling that the BLM hadn't obeyed federal environmental laws.

Pat Shea, a former BLM director and one of DeChristopher's attorneys, says those two actions wiped out potential claims of damage to the other bidders.

Tolman insisted the charges weren't about politics.

"Rather than follow the rule of law," he said, "this defendant has, in his own words, repeatedly said he intended to disrupt the lease-bidding process."

But Carrier sees politics at the root of the case.

"We're fighting entrenched policy, powerful corporate entities and the government," she said. "[Tolman's] action looks heavy-handed in the context of the auction."
How the case got here

» The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced on Election Day last November that it would sell oil and gas leases on 360,000 acres in southern and eastern Utah, drawing scores of protests. The BLM eventually trimmed the sale to 149,000 acres, but many parcels still were close to nationals parks and wilderness-study areas.

» At a Dec. 19 auction, Tim DeChristopher won 13 lease parcels covering 22,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands with no intention of paying the $1.8 million he owed.

» On Feb. 4, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar shelved 77 contested lease parcels, including the ones DeChristopher won, and scolded the Bush administration for rushing reviews of the disputed sites.

» DeChristopher was indicted Wednesday on two felony counts.

» On Thursday, The Associated Press reported that a dozen high bidders have appealed -- to the Interior Board of Land Appeals -- Salazar's decision to scrap the 77 leases sold. Salazar says the parties should take their complaints to federal court.
 

A fight's brewing between Utah Democrats and Republicans over the U.S. Attorney for Utah.

Usually when parties change power in the White House, United States attorneys change too but Utah Republicans, led by Senator Orrin Hatch Say Brett Tolman has done an excellent job and both Utah and justice will be served if he stays where he is.

Wednesday Tolman announced he will bring two felony charges against Tim Decristopher, who’s accused of ruining a Bureau of Land Management oil lease auction last year but placing millions in fake bids.
The Decristopher [sic] case is one reason Democrats are agitating for a new, Democratic United States attorney for Utah. They think a Democrat would be less punitive toward Dechristopher.
“Maybe saner minds will prevail,” says state Democratic chair Wayne Holland. “There ought to be some plea deal out of that.”

Jim Matheson, Utah’s only Democrat in congress has interviewed people who want the job but President Obama is moving slowly and no one knows when he’ll make a decision about Utah Read on...
.

 

AMY GOODMAN: How do you prepare for ten years in prison, Tim?

TIM DeCHRISTOPHER: That’s a good question. I think it’s something that I’ve been preparing myself for kind of by preparing myself for how severe the consequences are that we’re facing by staying on the path that we’re on right now. I mean, the first time that an IPCC scientist put her hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m sorry my generation failed yours,” you know, that really shook me to the core and made me realize just how late in the game we are with dealing with climate change and how dark and desperate of a future we might be looking at. And I think that by preparing for that, preparing for that completely chaotic and ugly future that we’re already on track for, helps me to [inaudible] prison as something that I can deal with, because I’ve already started preparing myself to deal with those catastrophic effects that we might be looking at. Read transcript.

Scolding the Bush administration for rushing in its final days to drill near treasured Utah national parks, President Barack Obama's new Interior secretary Wednesday shelved oil and gas leases sold during a chaotic December auction.

Ken Salazar's action -- which drew cheers from conservationists and sneers from industry representatives -- triggered questions about the validity of costly land-use plans governing development and recreation on federal lands in the Beehive State, the fate of a University of Utah student who sabotaged the disputed lease auction and the future of drilling in the West.

But while he canceled the sale of the leases, still the object of an ongoing lawsuit, Salazar refused to put them permanently off-limits to drilling. "I don't necessarily believe all 77 of these oil and gas leases won't go into development at some time."

That would happen, Salazar indicated, only after Interior reviews how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management crafted at least three of its six long-range blueprints for 11 million acres of southern and eastern Utah.

These multimillion-dollar plans were the foundation of the lease sale Salazar invalidated and a federal judge ruled against. They also were the basis of U. student Tim DeChristopher's decision to go after a number of parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million he bid to snag 13 of them, even though he could face federal felony charges.

DeChristopher, 27, praised Salazar's decision. "That's excellent. That's wonderful. That's the kind of strong stance we need our leaders to be taking."

The monkey-wrenching activist said his disruption of the auction boosted mainstream conservationists' effectiveness.

But Salazar's move appears to have no effect on DeChristopher's potential legal snarls after the student "won" 13 of the 77 parcels, which cover about 103,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument and relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon.

"The decision to withdraw the leases does not wipe the slate clean," U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said. " As we do with every case referred to our office, we will continue to carefully review the facts in this case and, if appropriate, present it to a grand jury."

A federal judge already has given teeth to the argument that the BLM was derelict when it wrote its land-use plans -- without properly analyzing air quality or potential harm to ancient cultural relics -- to accommodate drilling.

Now U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina is considering an amended suit brought by a coalition of conservation and historic-preservation groups challenging the BLM's plans for the Vernal, Price and Moab regions.

A famous critic of the lease sale, actor and filmmaker Robert Redford, a Natural Resources Defense Council trustee, lauded the Obama administration's move as a sign that citizens, "after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings," have more say on what happens to public lands.

But the oil and gas industry warned that a policy shift could cost consumers more in the long run.

"The Obama administration's actions will lead to job losses, government revenue losses and higher energy costs," said Institute for Energy Research President Thomas J. Pyle in Washington.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also blasted Salazar's decision. "The argument that these leases have been canceled to protect our national parks is a fairy tale conjured up to win public support for what is actually a very dangerous anti-oil agenda."

Salazar said he based his decision on environmentally heedless GOP policies.

"In its last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our nation's most treasured landscapes in Utah," he said. "We will take a fresh look at these 77 parcels and the adequacy of the environmental review and analysis that led to their being offered for oil and gas development."

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who took over sponsorship of America's Redrock Wilderness Act, introduced in 1989 by former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah , commended Salazar but said he needs to go further.

"Until Secretary Salazar fixes the underlying defective resource-management plans," Hinchey said, "the result will be more lease sales in extremely sensitive areas."

Salazar's promise to review the BLM's plans covers a lot of ground, added Robin Cooley, staff attorney for Earthjustice. "Now that the lease sales are off the table, there are bigger problems. What we're ultimately looking for is going back and doing this process right. That doesn't mean the end to all oil and gas leases in Utah."

The BLM in Utah is preparing a parcel list for its next quarterly sale, tentatively scheduled for March 24, said spokeswoman Mary Wilson.

Ready for a new Sagebrush Rebellion? Some Utahns apparently are.

Members of the Utah House GOP caucus seemed ready to draw their handguns and ride off to the East, and take on those federalist Democrats who are trying to "take revenge" on Republican-dominated Utah.

A number of Noel's GOP colleagues agreed with Noel, a few giving the rancher and environmental consultant high-fives after his impassioned address.

The so-called Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s eventually fizzled. But a number of Westerners were sick of federal bureaucrats restricting their use of federal lands — lands that the federal government kept at statehood with the promise (never fulfilled) to sell off those lands for the benefit of the states' school children.

Noel said he plans to introduce a bill to make it a state felony — "eco-terrorism" — for anyone to try to stop "legal" development on federal or state lands. In particular, he singled out Tim Dechristopher, who bought up recent oil drilling leases at public auction to keep them away from oil companies.

This week the Obama administration voided those leases, an act, said Noel, that will cost Utah up to $30 million a year in lost royalties.

"That University of Utah student (Dechristopher) committed a felony, in my opinion," said Noel. "And I hope to make a felony out of it" through legislation.

Noel said stopping a legal oil lease is no different than "burning down a man's cattle operation — eco-terrorism." Dechristopher "took millions of dollars away from us, and he's laughing at us. It's not right. It's not fair."

Dechristopher said he's not an eco-terrorist. "What I did was non-destructive. And I don't believe ultimately it will have any negative affect on Utah. Just the opposite. Our real energy development in Southern Utah is sustainable energy, wind, solar and geothermal. They will bring more jobs than oil, and jobs that will be long lasting, beyond when the oil runs out."

He added that a judge and the new secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, recognize that the Bureau of Land Management didn't follow federal law in "rushing" to bid the oil leases just before former President George W. Bush left office.

"There are people out there who are mad as hell and ready to fight," Noel said. After taking a breath, he continuted that as legislators "we have to hold down" those feeling that violence could happen — and act in a reasoned, if determined, manner.

Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, said the Legislature should start a fund where people could contribute to pay legal costs to fight environmentalists in court at every step. "I'd contribute to that," he said.

Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, said every dollar Utah loses in energy development royalties "is a tax shift to the citizens" of the state. "We have to take a strong stand."

Besides Noel's bill to criminalize some behavior of environmentalists, he said he would have resolutions to send to Congress.

There will be a protest in favor of oil development/multiple use of federal lands in Utah on the Capitol steps Friday at noon. "Come out and support us," Noel asked.

The leases, which cover more than 100,000 acres, including lands near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, were auctioned in the last weeks of the Bush administration. They were among 11th-hour actions taken by the Bush Interior Department that have been criticized by environmental groups and are being reviewed by Obama officials.

In a news conference, Mr. Salazar said that after a review of the leases he concluded that the Bush administration had “rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our greatest national icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” without proper scientific review or consultation.

He did not rule out drilling on the lands in the future if a review found it feasible. He said, however, that the Obama administration would find a “new balance” between protecting environmentally sensitive park areas and opening public lands to energy exploration and drilling.

The Bush administration put the properties up for auction in December. Environmental groups filed suit days before the sale, asserting that the Interior Department had not done a proper analysis, particularly of the potential damage to air quality. In January, a Federal District Court judge in Washington agreed and issued an injunction preventing the oil and gas companies from taking possession of the leases.

The cancellation is effective immediately and means that the government will forfeit $6 million in fees from the bidders.

Environmental advocacy groups immediately hailed the decision.

“This is a critical first step and a dramatic difference from the Bush administration,” said Sharon Buccino, senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based advocacy group that worked on the lawsuit to block the leases.

But Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, a nonprofit association that represents independent natural gas and oil producers in the Intermountain West, said her group had “grave concerns” over the direction the new administration was taking.

“This is going to make it more difficult to develop the natural gas resources we need for our nation’s energy security,” she said.

Mr. Salazar said reviews were continuing of other Bush administration decisions in nearly a dozen policy areas, including offshore drilling and endangered species, particularly those made in the final months.

"I have directed (the department's) Bureau of Land Management not to accept the bids," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters on a conference call.

Environmental groups hailed the decision. They had filed a suit against the leases, complaining that Bush was rushing through a last-minute plan to auction pristine wilderness areas. They also said exploration would hurt tourism.

Oil and gas industry representatives expressed concern about the Obama administration's energy policy.

Salazar said the department would return the $6 million in bids on the 103,000 acres of contested parcels of land. He also said the department would reassess the decision to open these lands to energy exploration, which drew a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers and environmental groups.

He raised concerns about whether the department conducted the proper environmental evaluations and consultations with government agencies before proceeding with the lease sale.

Salazar said President Barack Obama supports responsible development of energy resources, but those interests must be weighed against protection for national landscapes.

No major integrated oil companies submitted winning bids for the disputed tracts. Winning bidders that will get refunds include Bill Barrett Corp (BBG.N), Questar Exploration and Production Co (STR.N) and prviately held Mustang Fuel Corp., Twlight Resources LLC and Enduring Resources LLC.

About a fourth of the total $6 million in winning bids for the parcels came from a college student who protested the lease sale by bidding on tracts he never intended to pay for.

The department never officially accepted the bids offered for these areas at the December lease sale held in the waning days of the Bush presidency.

A U.S. District Court had temporarily blocked the department from finalizing the lease sale, in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

The groups charged that opening the areas to oil and gas development would hurt air quality at several national parks. They said the Bureau of Land Management did not complete the environmental impact analysis mandated by federal regulations.

"This is the first critical step in restoring balance to managing the public lands," said Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We had in the last administration an approach that really elevated energy development ... to the dominant use of public land, to the exclusion of a lot of other important values."

Buccino said the groups would keep pursuing their case to contest government resource management plans that authorized the Utah lease sale.

Charles Drevna, president of National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, questioned how this decision fits into Obama's stated commitment to energy independence.

"How does one (have) a goal of limiting dependence on foreign sources of oil and natural gas and at the same time throw up artificial road blocks to development of our own natural resources," Drevna told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)

Scolding the Bush administration for rushing in its final days to drill near treasured Utah national parks, President Barack Obama's new Interior secretary Wednesday shelved oil and gas leases sold during a chaotic December auction.

Ken Salazar's action -- which drew cheers from conservationists and sneers from industry representatives -- triggered questions about the validity of costly land-use plans governing development and recreation on federal lands in the Beehive State, the fate of a University of Utah student who sabotaged the disputed lease auction and the future of drilling in the West.

But while he canceled the sale of the leases, still the object of an ongoing lawsuit, Salazar refused to put them permanently off-limits to drilling. "I don't necessarily believe all 77 of these oil and gas leases won't go into development at some time."

That would happen, Salazar indicated, only after Interior reviews how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management crafted at least three of its six long-range blueprints for 11 million acres of southern and eastern Utah.

These multimillion-dollar plans were the foundation of the lease sale Salazar invalidated and a federal judge ruled against. They also were the basis of U. student Tim DeChristopher's decision to go after a number of parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million he bid to snag 13 of them, even though he could face federal felony charges.

DeChristopher, 27, praised Salazar's decision. "That's excellent. That's wonderful. That's the kind of strong stance we need our leaders to be taking."

The monkey-wrenching activist said his disruption of the auction boosted mainstream conservationists' effectiveness.

But Salazar's move appears to have no effect on DeChristopher's potential legal snarls after the student "won" 13 of the 77 parcels, which cover about 103,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument and relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon.

"The decision to withdraw the leases does not wipe the slate clean," U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said. " As we do with every case referred to our office, we will continue to carefully review the facts in this case and, if appropriate, present it to a grand jury."

A federal judge already has given teeth to the argument that the BLM was derelict when it wrote its land-use plans -- without properly analyzing air quality or potential harm to ancient cultural relics -- to accommodate drilling.

Now U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina is considering an amended suit brought by a coalition of conservation and historic-preservation groups challenging the BLM's plans for the Vernal, Price and Moab regions.

A famous critic of the lease sale, actor and filmmaker Robert Redford, a Natural Resources Defense Council trustee, lauded the Obama administration's move as a sign that citizens, "after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings," have more say on what happens to public lands.

But the oil and gas industry warned that a policy shift could cost consumers more in the long run.

"The Obama administration's actions will lead to job losses, government revenue losses and higher energy costs," said Institute for Energy Research President Thomas J. Pyle in Washington.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also blasted Salazar's decision. "The argument that these leases have been canceled to protect our national parks is a fairy tale conjured up to win public support for what is actually a very dangerous anti-oil agenda."

Salazar said he based his decision on environmentally heedless GOP policies.

"In its last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our nation's most treasured landscapes in Utah," he said. "We will take a fresh look at these 77 parcels and the adequacy of the environmental review and analysis that led to their being offered for oil and gas development."

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who took over sponsorship of America's Redrock Wilderness Act, introduced in 1989 by former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah , commended Salazar but said he needs to go further.

"Until Secretary Salazar fixes the underlying defective resource-management plans," Hinchey said, "the result will be more lease sales in extremely sensitive areas."

Salazar's promise to review the BLM's plans covers a lot of ground, added Robin Cooley, staff attorney for Earthjustice. "Now that the lease sales are off the table, there are bigger problems. What we're ultimately looking for is going back and doing this process right. That doesn't mean the end to all oil and gas leases in Utah."

The BLM in Utah is preparing a parcel list for its next quarterly sale, tentatively scheduled for March 24, said spokeswoman Mary Wilson.

phenetz@sltrib.com

The American public just scored a major victory on behalf of our public lands. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced that he is canceling all 77 contested leases surrounding some of Utah's most stunning national parks. Now, instead of being drilled and industrialized, this redrock wilderness can remain part of our natural heritage.

I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands.

The Bush administration made oil and gas drilling the dominant use of public lands, placing it above recreation, preservation, and wildlife habitat. Considering America has less than 3 percent of the world's oil reserves and couldn't possible drill its way out of our energy problems, the policy amounted to little more than a giveaway of public resources to the administration's energy industry friends. The Utah leases, announced in November, were just one last parting gift.

Now a new era has dawned in Washington. Our new president is pledging to put America on a clean energy path, one in which we mine our energy efficiency and renewable resources instead of our pristine wildlands.

Although I don't expect miracles from the new administration, I do expect a more even-handed approach to the lands we hold in common. Cancelling the Utah leases was a step in that direction.

The decision reminds us that we don't have to choose between preserving special places and achieving energy security. We can do both. We can drive down energy costs by calling on American workers to weatherize our homes and build more efficient cars. We can opt for clean wind and solar power that doesn't pollute our air and water or endanger our health. And we can protect wild landscapes for generations to come.

But the administration didn't arrive at this decision alone. Yes, my friends at NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and Earthjustice had to file a lawsuit to temporarily halt the leases, but that's not the only thing that brought us to victory. Salazar's announcement confirms something I believe firmly: American citizens have a say in the fate of the lands we love.

I have spent my adult life exploring the slick rock ridgelines, red-walled canyons, and rock art galleries that were threatened by the recent lease sale. I feel deeply connected to these places, and that's why I spoke up for them. But I wasn't the only one.

More than 150,000 Americans filed protest comments with the BLM and broadcast their outrage online. A broad coalition of preservation and business groups and even Congressional leaders added their voices to the outcry. And the media covered the stories extensively, not just because of the secretive nature of the deal, but because well-loved national treasures were at stake.

Government agencies are supposed to protect our lands for our benefit. When they don't, we need to speak up. Well, that's what we did in the name of the Utah wildlands, and look what we accomplished.

In a conference call with reporters and bloggers just completed, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made a most welcome announcement.

WASHINGTON (February 4, 2009) – More than 100,000 acres of Utah wilderness will be protected from oil and gas drilling after the Department of Interior announced today that it will cancel 77 leases issued under the Bush administration. This is among the first actions taken by the Obama administration to protect America’s wild lands. Since December, a coalition of environmental groups – led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), Earthjustice, and the Wilderness Society – have been working to protect these public lands. In December, the coalition filed suit to stop the leasing, and, in January, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from moving forward with these leases.

"I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands," said Robert Redford, an NRDC trustee. "American citizens once again have a say in the fate of their public lands, which in this case happen to be some of the last pristine places on earth."

Unclear at the moment is where that leaves University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher, one of the most sophisticated, effective, and constructive monkey-wrenchers ever. He won 13 leases in his partially successful attempt to derail the auction. With those leases now canceled, his legal jeopardy might be dissolved. Salazar refused to comment on the case in this call, merely stating that it has been referred to the DOJ.

Salazar doesn't rule out the possibility that some of the parcels on which leases were canceled today won't eventually be put back out for sale once a valid process for determining their suitability for drilling is completed. But the most sensitive areas will remain protected.

There were a handful of questions on all the other messes Salazar inherited, from snowmobiles in Yellowstone to massive oil shale lease sales, but Salazar remained tight-lipped on the other decisions and midnight regulations that they are currently reconsidering.

This was a very good start, but there's yeoman's work ahead of Salazar and his department, including reestablishing and enforcing ethics in the Department. While it didn't receive the degree of attention that the Department of Justice did for being politicized, the shenanigans there go far beyond the drugs and sex scandals that made headlines. Rooting out the industry shills in Interior is going to be as big a job as rooting out Regent University law school grads.

Salazar says the Bush administration rushed an auction in December of some of the country's most precious landscapes around national parks and the wild Green River.

Salazar on Wednesday ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, not to cash checks from winning bidders for the parcels at issue in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

A federal judge last month put the sale of the 77 parcels on hold. Now Salazar is saying he won't sell any of them — at least not until the Obama administration has a chance to take a second look.

The Bush administration conducted the lease sale in December, but environmental groups went to court to block the winning bids encompassing roughly 110,000 acres near pristine areas such as Nine Mile Canyon, Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.

Just before Bush left office last month, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued a restraining order on the lease sales, postponing the final transactions until he could hear arguments on the merits of the case.

An Interior spokesman declined to comment on the matter, but several sources familiar with the decision said Salazar planned to announce it today, adding that he can reject the winning bids without a penalty because the transactions had not become final and the department has the discretion to accept or reject lease bids that prevail at a public auction.

Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who helped challenge the lease sales in federal court, said the decision would send an important signal about the new administration's approach to energy and environmental issues.

"What's significant here is you really do have Salazar taking a very critical first step toward restoring some sort of balance to the management of public lands," Buccino said. "We can have energy security without sacrificing the West's wild places."

The federal government's Dec. 19 Utah lease sale sparked a second legal controversy as well: In an attempt to derail the auction, University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher bid $1.8 million and won 13 of the leases even though he never intended to pay for them.

Federal agents escorted DeChristopher out of the room in the midst of the auction, and the U.S. attorney Brett L. Tolman is considering whether to press charges in the case.

By Patty Henetz, Salt Lake Tribune 

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will cancel the results of a chaotic Utah oil- and gas-lease sale that drew protests from conservationists, outdoors enthusiasts, the National Park Service, members of Congress and President Barack Obama's transition team chief.

While Salazar said he would make an announcement Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. MST on the lease auction conducted Dec. 19 in Salt Lake City, The Washington Post , citing unnamed Interior sources, said Salazar will invalidate the sale of 77 leases on 103,000 acres near Vernal, Moab and Price.

The lease sale, which the U.S. Bureau of Land Management conducted under the Bush administration's directive to maximize drilling in Utah's scenic redrock country, fell apart when a University of Utah student, Tim DeChristopher, monkey-wrenched the auction by winning bids on parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million owed for the leases.

On Tuesday, 11 conservation and historic preservation groups amended a lawsuit that already has resulted in a temporary restraining order against the BLM sale.

On Jan. 17, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued a temporary restraining order to indefinitely leases near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument, wilderness study areas and Nine Mile Canyon

The groups had argued that the leases were faulty because the BLM didn't properly study air quality or potential damage to ancient rock art. Now the plaintiffs want the court to halt implementation of three BLM long-term management plans finalized for those regions just days before the disputed auction.

phenetz@sltrib.com

Same Day Statement (PDF)
Brett L. Tolman
United States Attorney District of Utah
U.S. Department of Justice

Barely two weeks after pushing the federal government into a corner over a chaotic oil- and gas-lease sale, conservation organizations threw more punches Tuesday, hoping to overturn a Bush administration quest to maximize drilling in Utah's redrock country.

Eleven conservation and historic-preservation groups amended a lawsuit that already has resulted in a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which on Dec. 19 auctioned 77 oil and gas parcels that were under formal protest.

The groups had argued that the leases were faulty because the BLM didn't properly study air quality or potential damage to ancient rock art. The amended lawsuit seeks to nullify long-term BLM management plans for the Vernal, Moab and Price regions, claiming the agency didn't properly consider wild and scenic-river designations, wilderness, climate change and the effects of off-highway vehicle recreation on arid public lands.

The cause has caught the attention of President Barack Obama's Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, who last week told reporters he was reviewing Bush administration "midnight actions," including the Dec. 19 lease sale.

Salazar also said he was keeping an eye on what may happen to University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher, who upended the auction by winning bids on parcels with no intention of paying the $1.8 million owed for the leases.

On Tuesday, Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby clarified that Salazar didn't have the power to intervene in any possible prosecution of DeChristopher, which is the "sole discretion" of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City.

Quimby couldn't say whether Salazar had the power to throw out any complaint the BLM state office in Utah may have filed against DeChristopher, nor was Quimby aware of any such complaint.

As for overturning the lease-sale results, Quimby said Interior would defer to pending action in federal court and declined comment.

On Jan. 17, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued a temporary restraining order to indefinitely block the leases on more than 103,000 acres in eastern and southern Utah. The federal government has until Friday to respond to the order.

The parcels are near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument, wilderness study areas and Nine Mile Canyon.

Steve Bloch, staff attorney for one of the plaintiffs, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the resource-management plans gave preference to oil and gas drilling and OHV recreation over all other uses.

phenetz@sltrib.com

"We are looking at all of the options, and we are putting those in the category of midnight actions of the Bush administration," Salazar told a teleconference of reporters.

Not only is Salazar looking at ways to stop issuing the oil leases near Utah national parks that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctioned last month, he is apparently weighing halting any prosecution of an activist -- Tim DeChristopher -- who ran up bids without any intention of buying parcels (and won bids he cannot afford for some).

"It (prosecution of DeChristopher) is something we have on our radar screen, and no decision has been made," Salazar said about the case.

Environmental groups have called on the Obama administration to void last month's auction. A federal judge also put a temporary hold on those leases near such areas as Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Nine Mile Canyon to consider merits of a lawsuit by seven environmental and historical preservation groups.

Salazar hinted the administration itself, without any court order, is also thinking about halting the auctioned leases.

"We are examining our options and seeing what we are able to do with respect to those actions. We will take a look at it," he said.

He said another of the "midnight actions" by the Bush administration that could be halted is its moves toward allowing leases for commercial oil shale production in Utah, which Salazar said is premature.

As U.S. senator from Colorado, Salazar fought last year to preserve a moratorium against such commercial oil shale leases. It expired anyway when Congress failed to extend it at a time when gasoline prices were soaring. (Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, helped lead the fight to dump that moratorium.)

Salazar said in response to a Deseret News question Wednesday that too many unknowns about oil shale development remain to proceed with commercial leases.

"There is no answer to the question as to how much water will be required" or how much energy it will take to extract oil shale and "how that will ultimately contribute to the issue of climate change," he said.

"I think until those very fundamental questions are answered, it makes no sense to move toward a commercial oil shale leasing program," he said. "So that is one of those midnight actions of the Bush administration that we will be reviewing and making thoughtful decisions about how to move forward."

However, Salazar said research and development into oil shale should continue to seek answers to such questions about its cost- effectiveness and environmental impacts.

"The research and development efforts that are under way I believe should be continued because there are huge resources in the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming ... and those research and development efforts are, I think, appropriate," he said.

While disliking the Utah oil and oil shale leases, Salazar said one of the priorities he intends to pursue at the Interior Department is to help America become an energy independent nation, and one that is more "green" and uses more renewable energy sources.

"I believe very strongly in this issue. I think inescapable forces (that) compel us to move forward with this new energy frontier are the realities of national security, environmental security and global warming, as well as economic opportunities here at home," he said.

He added he seeks "the right balance for the development of our conventional fuels and resources so that we are protecting the environment, at the same time recognizing as we transition to the new energy frontier we need to use our conventional fuels to help us sustain our economy."

Take the train. Dial down your heat. Write your senator.

Taking those individual steps surely helps in the battle against global warming. But, scientists and advocates warn, it's no longer enough to fend off climate disaster.

Get ready, some of them say, to hijack oil-lease sales (like a college student did in Utah), to climb smokestacks in protest (like Greenpeace activists did in England), to trespass at power plants (like demonstrators plan to do in Washington, D.C.).

It's time, these environmentalists say, for some good, old-fashioned civil disobedience -- the types of nonviolent acts proven effective by the famous (Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks) and the faceless (students at Tiananmen Square, anti-war protesters on college campuses, women suffragists in street marches).

At a recent Environmental Ministry meeting at Salt Lake City's First Unitarian Church that drew more than 300 people, Tim DeChristopher, the 27-year-old University of Utah economics student who disrupted a December drilling-lease auction, called for an "uprising."

DeChristopher didn't use the word lightly, he said, yet "anything short of that will not get us where we need to go."

Heeding such calls, organizers are mobilizing for a mass act of nonviolent civil disobedience March 2 to protest coal-fired power plants and the damage industrial pollution has caused to the planet's climate.

"We're hoping and preparing for thousands," said Matt Leonard, the Greenpeace coordinator for the event. "It will certainly be the largest such action on climate change in U.S. history. We hope it will be the first of many."

Protesters will gather at the Capital Power Plant in Washington -- source of heat and refrigeration for the entire Capitol complex -- walk on to the property, sit down and thereby break the law.

"Enough is enough. Action needs to be taken," Leonard said. "But to really meet the climate crisis, we need collective action. You can't do that by buying light bulbs and hybrid vehicles."

» Gore's plea: The March 2 demonstration will be the first major protest since former Vice President Al Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, in September called for moral lawbreaking.

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause, according to Reuters news service.

Since then, author and environmentalist Bill McKibben and poet Wendell Berry have chimed in. Last month, they wrote an open letter, which has circulated widely on the Web, urging mass civil disobedience against coal in March.

"We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested," they wrote. "The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it."

But the thought of moving beyond conventional acts -- voting, lobbying, giving up cars -- stumps or scares some would-be activists. Others would never dream of breaking the law.

After the First Unitarian Church meeting, Robert and Amy Matheson said they felt more aware of the enormity of climate disruption but were unsure what to do next. They didn't know what civil disobedience looked like and were wary of it -- given the risks.

"I'm kind of a chicken," Amy Matheson said. "I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my family, my freedom, my life."

Maybe if he were emotionally invested, Robert Matheson reasoned, he would be less afraid.

» Personal stake: All humans are invested in coal, activists say, even if they don't recognize it.

Coal-industry advocates point out that the United States gets about half its electricity from coal; nearly all of Utah's electricity is coal fired. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates domestic coal could last for over 250 years at current-use levels.

The countries where coal is the primary energy fuel are polluting everyone's lives. Some of the evidence: unprecedented asthma rates in children, the enduring drought in the American Southwest, the worst drought in Australia in 1,000 years, crop failures in Africa, the filthy air on the Wasatch Front, the cheat grass on the Western range and the fires that feed on it.

Growing awareness of coal's downside led a British jury in September to acquit Greenpeace activists who climbed a 650-foot coal-plant smokestack in an attempt to shut it down. The jury reasoned that global warming is causing greater harm than Greenpeace.

DeChristopher saw his own transgression as a step toward Earth's salvation.With climate chaos looming, he said, "How could I not do this? How could I sit by and be complicit in my own destruction?"

The U. student could face federal felony charges and even prison for his protest. Still, he urges more people to do what he did: If an opportunity presents itself, find your voice and stand your ground.

But don't go all out without cause, warned Daniel Kessler, a Greenpeace spokesman in San Francisco. "There's no reason for civil disobedience if another [measure] is more effective."

Tweetup for Modern Day Monkeywrencher set at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market

Salt Lake City, UT – The nation’s newest poster child for civil disobedience will come face to face with the industry that may be best positioned to appreciate his environmental activism when Tim DeChristopher makes the rounds at this week’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

DeChristopher’s goal in attending the show is to raise awareness in support of a campaign he singlehandedly spearheaded to save the backdrop to two of Utah’s most famous national parks from oil and gas drilling operations. His efforts already have been applauded by the likes of movie star and environmentalist Robert Redford, the Yes Men, and Ken Sleight, aka Seldom Seen Smith, in Edward Abbey’s most famous work of environmental fiction, “The Monkey Wrench Gang.” DeChristopher has appeared on Democracy Now, CBS Evening News and been written about in major newspapers throughout the US and across the oceans from Great Britain to New Zealand.

DeChristopher will meet with top management from some of the leading manufacturers of human -powered outdoor gear who’ve expressed interest in and affinity with his cause. He’ll also conduct media interviews with the likes of Backpacker magazine as well as a radio interview for Wisconsin Public Radio’s syndicated “To the Best of Our Knowledge” and other regional and national outdoor enthusiast publications. A “Tweetup for Tim” is schedule at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Backcountry Village (Booth #35106) in the Salt Palace. The Tweetup, an offline meeting publicized largely via social media microblogging site Twitter, will be a chance for outdoor industry enthusiasts to meet Tim, suport his cause and listen in on Shannon Davis’ interview for Backpacker.

DeChristopher became the Monkey Wrench Gang’s newest de facto inductee when he bid against oil and gas industry veterans during a US Bureau of Land Mangement lease auction in Moab, Utah last month. Though DeChristopher had neither the means, nor any intention of paying for them, he won leases totaling $1.7 million for 22,500 acres of Utah red rock desert near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Many of the parcels were being contested by environmental groups since they in an area that contain the nation’s greatest density of ancient rock art and other cultural resources. Over this past weekend, a federal judge approved a temporary restraining order on the auction, signaling some chance the environmental groups’ claims may prevail.

A web site raising money for DeChristopher’s leases has brought in $45,000, but the BLM has not yet decided whether to accept the downpayment. Funds raised will also be used to defray legal costs, as DeChristopher is also facing possible fraud charges in federal court which, if the case goes to trial and he’s convicted, could include prison time.

This year’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market has attracted more than 800 exhibitors representing manufacturers of tents, backpacks, clothing, hardware, Nordic gear and all the accessories folks need to maximize their enjoyment and safety in the outdoors. The trade show, which is not open to the public, runs Jan. 22 – 25. DeChristopher’s appearance at the show is thanks in part to Kenji Haroutunian, Group Show Director, Nielsen Business Media. Thanks too to Alison Gannett, founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation, for welcoming DeChristopher to Backcountry Village.

###

They were warned, but they didn't listen.

Now, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must deal with a federal judge's finding that the agency failed to properly consider potential damage to air quality and ancient rock art before selling oil and gas leases on sensitive public lands in Utah.

In an unusual weekend ruling, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued a temporary restraining order to indefinitely block 77 protested oil and gas leases on more than 103,000 acres in eastern and southern Utah.

The ruling throws the already-disrupted Dec. 19 auction into deeper limbo.

Should Urbina continue to rule in favor of the seven conservation and historic-preservation organizations that sued to stop the BLM auction, the land-use plans that were the bedrock of the lease sale ultimately could crumble.

"We're on the cusp of something very significant," said Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance staff attorney Steve Bloch.

The parcels Urbina ruled on are near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument, wilderness study areas and Nine Mile Canyon, revered as holy by the Hopi tribe.

Thirteen of the leases are those a University of Utah student won at the auction, with no intention to pay, in what he called an act of civil disobedience.

BLM spokeswomen in Salt Lake City declined to comment on the ruling because Urbina is still considering the underlying lawsuit.

But Pam Miller, a spokeswoman for the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition said: "We're thrilled. The judge thinks [the lawsuit] has merit and thinks they will prevail when it goes to court."

In his ruling, Urbina found the BLM didn't properly analyze air-quality damage that would result from industrial activity -- a measure the Environmental Protection Agency had advised the BLM to take to satisfy federal law.

Urbina also found that the BLM's inadequate studies posed risks to Nine Mile Canyon's ancient Puebloan art, protected under federal historic preservation law.

The judge based his ruling on three of the long-term resource management plans the BLM made final on Halloween. Those RMPs also were final environmental impact statements; Urbina wrote that the BLM "cannot rely on EISs that lack air pollution and ozone level statistics."

That means the resource plans for the Vernal, Price and Moab field offices could be in trouble, Bloch said. "At a minimum, these three RMPs suffer fatal flaws."

About a half-dozen of the 77 leases were on the West Tavaputs Plateau, where Bill Barrett Corp. is seeking full-field development of about 900 natural gas wells. The final environmental impact statement on that project, expected before President George W. Bush left office, has yet to emerge.

Bill Barrett spokesman Duane Zavadil declined to comment on the specifics of Urbina's ruling because the company has intervened in the lawsuit. He did say, however, that the project's environmental studies include ozone analyses.

Industry representatives said the lawsuit against the lease sale was counterproductive.

"It's unfortunate that this ruling came just days before President Obama was sworn in since it will result in a setback for two of his main policy goals -- increasing energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," said Kathleen Sgamma, government affairs director for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States.

But Tim DeChristopher, the 27-year-old economics student who threw a wrench into the lease sale, hailed Urbina's ruling even though he has criticized mainstream environmental groups' legal fights as games they are losing.

DeChristopher, who won bids worth $1.8 million on 22,000 acres, said his actions were effective.

He still faces possible federal felony charges, but the temporary restraining order could work in his favor. "It is a ruling that says this auction was inappropriate in the first place," he said.

phenetz@sltrib.com

WASHINGTON (January 18, 2009) – More than 110,000 acres of Utah wilderness will be protected from oil and gas companies as a result of a ruling last night by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court. Judge Urbina granted a temporary restraining order that prevents the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from moving forward with these leases. A coalition of environmental groups— led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society, and Earthjustice– filed a lawsuit on December 17, 2008 to prevent the leasing of public lands.
 
"This ruling is a huge victory in protecting our nation's pristine wilderness from destruction due to oil and gas drilling," said Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for NRDC. "We do not need to sacrifice our wild lands to achieve a secure energy future."
 
In his ruling, Judge Urbina found that the conservation groups "have shown a likelihood of success on the merits" and that the "'development of domestic energy resources' … is far outweighed by the public interest in avoiding irreparable damage to public lands and the environment." The merits of the case will be heard later in 2009. Until that time, BLM is prohibited from cashing the checks issued for the contested acres of Utah wilderness.
 
"We're thrilled with this decision," said Stephen Bloch, Conservation Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "BLM's attempt to sell these leases just before the Bush administration left office has been showcased for what it really is – a parting gift to the oil and gas industry. Judge Urbina's decision firmly puts the brakes on these plans."
 
The contested areas near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon include lands that contain the nation's greatest density of ancient rock art and other cultural resources. These lands were recently made available to industry through hastily approved resource management plans that have serious ramifications for 3 million acres of public lands.
 
"Under the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management pushed through Resource Management Plans that treated some of America's most sensitive and spectacular public lands as the private playgrounds of the oil and gas companies," said Bill Hedden, Executive Director of Grand Canyon Trust. "Today's heartening court decision gives these unique places a last second pardon from forever sacrificing their archaeological treasures, pristine air and remote wildness in order to sate only an hour or two of our national addiction to oil and gas."
 
"When we begin to allow oil drilling in the backdrop of an icon like Arches National Park, we know something needs to change," said Sierra Club representative Myke Bybee. "It's time to stop handing over our natural treasures just so the oil industry can make more money. Instead, we could be investing in efficiency and the kind of clean energy that will benefit all of us and leave our best wild places intact." 

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.

We are fortunate to have someone like Tim to be a spokesman for his generation.  The Washington Post of January 12 can be found here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011102265_2.html?hpid=topnews .

The money's in the bank for Tim DeChristopher, who said Friday he has reached his goal of amassing $45,000 to make his down payment on oil and gas drilling leases he won at a federal auction three weeks ago.

The University of Utah student - who on Dec. 19 deliberately bid, with no intention of paying, $1.8 million for 13 parcels on 22,000 acres near Arches and Canyonlands national parks - raised the money by his self-imposed deadline.

Most of the donations were $10 or $20 from "thousands" of people, DeChristopher said in a statement. "I deeply appreciate the generosity of all those who have contributed."

DeChristopher believes the $45,000 will be enough to pay his immediate obligation to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and fend off drilling on the scenic region at least until President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20 and new officials are in charge.

But industry insiders who also took part in the BLM lease sale in Salt Lake City scoff at the ploy, saying that because DeChristopher missed the agency's deadline, his bids should be rejected, and he shouldn't be allowed to buy them even if his supporters come up with all $1.8 million.

The BLM explains that DeChristopher's money is too little, too late. Spokeswoman Mary Wilson said he was liable for a minimum of $81,238.50 on auction day with the nearly $1.8 million due no later than Jan. 6.

But DeChristopher said his lawyers -- former national BLM boss Pat Shea and noted Salt Lake City defense attorney Ron Yengich -- counsel that because what happened at the auction was unprecedented, "there's still a chance we can make the first payment."

DeChristopher, 27, acknowledges he intended to disrupt the auction with what he calls an act of civil disobedience. The U.S. attorney's office is weighing whether to take the case to a grand jury for possible felony charges.

"I understood the consequences of my actions before I took them," DeChristopher said in an interview.

While many environmentalists salute DeChristopher's defiance, some industry representatives want his head.

BLM officials "should make sure they prosecute to the fullest extent of the law," said Kathleen Sgamma, an official with the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States. "It seems that would put a damper on any future fraudulent bidding."

Vern Jones, of Salt Lake City-based Jones Land Services, an independent agent who bid on behalf of nine oil and gas companies in four states at the auction, said he is suspicious of DeChristopher's fundraising.

"When he didn't pay on the day of the sale, he didn't have a prayer of getting the leases," Jones said. "When he's telling everyone, 'If you send me money, you can save me,' that's just crap. He's scamming people."

The fundraising is legal, DeChristopher insists. A nonprofit group, the Center for Water Advocacy in Moab, is handling the donations.

"I tried to make it clear there's a defense fund and a lease-purchase fund," DeChristopher said. "The lease-purchase fund is reserved for buying the leases. If the BLM refuses payment, or my land is put up for auction again, the $45,000 will be used for bidding again on that land in whatever new option it is put up for."

If the land isn't put up for auction, "I intend to contact the donors and get their feedback on whether the money should be returned, put into my defense fund or put into [another] project or philanthropic effort," he said. "People have given me that trust. I certainly don't want to take advantage of that."

Since the auction, questions have arisen about the BLM's procedures. Should the agency have required bidders to post a bond or otherwise prove their ability to pay for their bids? Was the BLM somehow lax when it allowed DeChristopher to register and receive bidding paddle No. 70? Should the agency tighten up its auctions by requiring proof of ability to pay?

To Jones, an industry insider for 35 years, the answers are no, no and no. "The BLM has done everything it could have done and should have done," he said.

The rules the agency posted in its announcement for the auction said bids were legally binding commitments with money due on sale day. All balances, which include several BLM administrative fees, were due Jan. 6.

"If you do not pay in full by this date, you lose the right to the lease and all money due on the day of the sale. If you forfeit a parcel, we may offer it at a later sale," the notice said.

DeChristopher signed a bidder registration form that said it is a crime under federal law to "knowingly and willfully make any false, fictitious or fraudulent statements" and cited the maximum federal penalties for the crime: five years in prison, a fine, or both.

Jones said he never has had to post a bond or otherwise certify he could pay for his bids. Likening his job to that of a real-estate agent, he said he shouldn't be expected to shell out for bids he makes on his clients' behalf.

But Shea, who oversaw the BLM during the Clinton administration, said the agency has required more proof from bidders in the past. "When we were administering oil and gas leases," he said, "there was a bond requirement and a cash-certification commitment."

In addition, Shea said, the BLM has allowed some bidders to run lines of credit or otherwise has acknowledged financial liquidity without requiring bidders to pay on auction day.

"Those who know how to game the system get an economic advantage. Someone who is a bit naive but full of integrity can get tripped up," Shea said. "The [BLM] handbook is not the definitive statement on the statutesand restrictions on oil and gas leases. "

As it happened, the BLM suspended its own rules for the Dec. 19 auction when it allowed bidders who thought DeChristopher's actions overinflated their bids to withdraw them. Two bidders pulled back on two parcels; the combined value of those bids was $73,000, Wilson said.

DeChristopher said he would urge more people to buy leases and retire them. "There are enough of us who value the land and value the climate. We should protect this environment," he said. "That's the only way we can get the true market value for these leases -- if all the people who value the land are involved in the auction."

Jones and other industry insiders said they had no problem with people legitimately buying leases they intended to keep undeveloped.

"If they're willing to spend the money, that's their option," Jones said. "I just don't think it's fair for someone to go in and destroy the system."

phenetz@sltrib.com

For more information on Tim DeChristopher please visit www.bidder70.org.

Utah NOW, Wednesday January 7th, 2009 @ 5:37 pm

Tim on KUED's Utah NOW, January 7th, 2009

At an auction of previously unavailable land -- an auction protested against by many enviros, including Robert Redford -- DeChristopher made high bids on land, forcing companies to match his bids.

Of course in some cases, they didn't match them. So he "won" a few tracts of land.

Several bidders said they hadn't decided whether they would withdraw their bids. Some said they may reluctantly hold on to their leases _ despite the higher cost _ out of concern that the parcels might not go up for auction again under President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

DeChristopher snapped up 22,500 acres of land around Arches and Canyonlands parks but said he could afford to pay for only a few of those acres. He owes $1.7 million on all of his leases.

Now he's decided -- with legal help -- to raise money in order to actually put down payments on the land, which will keep him out of jail and extend the debate over the land's fate. He's written an open letter explaining his situation. Here's an excerpt:

It is still unclear how the new administration will deal with this inappropriate auction and the disruption I caused to it, but I can only hope the President Obama follows through on his promise for a transparent government. Until then I will make sure that no drilling or development happens on this land, and for that I need your help. This is an opportunity for all of us to make a clear statement of how much we care for our land, our climate and participatory democracy.

Please donate to help protect these 22,500 acres of wilderness (and reduce the chance of prison for me). Together we can protect this land and show that we are all willing to make the sacrifices necessary for a livable future.

The Salt Lake Tribune. Posted: 12/31/2008 07:09:05 PM MST

Fundraising » DeChristopher hopes to run out the clock

By Patty Henetz

Tim DeChristopher's story reads like an Edward Abbey novel, only Abbey wasn't nearly this creative.

Instead of Abbey's jack Mormon river runner Seldom Seen Smith, our true-life, redrock hero is a 27-year-old University of Utah economics major. And, instead of employing gasoline and TNT, he commits environmental protectionism with an auction paddle.

When DeChristopher bid on government oil and gas leases at a Bureau of Land Management auction in Salt Lake City this month, he had every advantage over the competition.

Money was not an issue, because DeChristopher didn't intend to pay.

He didn't have to answer to a company president or board of directors, only his conscience.

And it didn't matter if the oil and gas deposits would cover the costs of the lease and recovery. The last thing DeChristopher intended to do was spoil the scenic terrain and further threaten the planet by drilling it. The son of one of the founders of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, he is in love with the land, and concerned about fossil fuels causing climate change.

So he bid with reckless abandon, buying 10-plus parcels for a combined $1.8 million, and driving up the cost of other leases. Then he got caught. The oil and gas industry reps eventually realized they were being monkeywrenched, and DeChristopher was hauled off for questioning. But it was too late to rebid the parcels, which won a reprieve with the potential for an Obama administration pardon.

What DeChristopher did was, in all likelihood, a crime. But I can't tell you which one. Maybe "Obstruction for Environmental Justice," or "Recklessly Endangering the Exploitation of Wilderness," or even "Indecent Exposure of a Government Agency That's Too Dumb to Require Collateral as a Condition for Bidding."

Now it's up to federal attorneys to decide if they want to teach environmental activists a lesson by prosecuting DeChristopher and creating a martyr while upholding the government's right to rape wilderness-quality land.

A pair of prominent Utah attorneys, anticipating the filing of charges, have offered to represent DeChristopher. And money is being collected for his defense.

But, in interviews with the news media and BLM officials, DeChristopher has already confessed. He said he's written letters and carried protest signs, to no avail, and an act of "civil disobedience" was his last resort.

DeChristopher's best bet to avoid jail would be to plead guilty, and then ask Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to request a presidential pardon. After all, Hatch went to bat for "genius" drug dealer/musician John Forte. Surely the senator would write a letter on behalf of an ingenious constituent who has also proven himself a true patriot, at least by Edward Abbey's definition.

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government," Abbey once said. And that's all DeChristopher was trying to do.

Casey Jones is a member of The Tribune editorial board. E-mail: cjones@sltrib.com

With that, Tim DeChristopher, 27, a University of Utah economics student and environmental activist, showed his driver's license, picked up bidding paddle No. 70 and quietly seated himself in the bidding hall on Friday.

He snapped up 22,500 acres of parcels between Arches and Canyonlands national parks that he doesn't plan to develop or even pay for. He also drove up prices on other bids by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nobody else has infiltrated a government auction to cause so much turmoil, according to officials at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Investigators submitted reports Monday to federal prosecutors, based on DeChristopher's own account of his auction play. No decision on charges against DeChristopher was expected until after the holidays, and the case would go to a grand jury first, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

DeChristopher huddled Monday with Ron Yengich, a prominent Utah defense lawyer, and Patrick Shea, a lawyer who also was head of the Bureau of Land Management during the Clinton administration.

Shea said the BLM didn't require bidders last week to show proof of a bond or their ability to pay for leases.

"Somehow, the regulations changed, an indication of their rush" to sell oil and gas parcels before President George W. Bush leaves office next month, said Shea. "It was rush before the door slams behind them: 'Let's get as many leases out as possible.'"

BLM officials didn't return calls seeking comment Monday.

The lawyers also discussed with DeChristopher the possibility of finding sympathetic and well-heeled donors to raise $1.7 million to pay for his leases, and whether that would keep him out of trouble.

DeChristopher said his bidding won moral support from his mother, a founder of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, but consternation from his father, a retired natural-gas engineer.

"He's not especially pleased about the actions I took and the fact that I put myself at risk," DeChristopher said.

Friday's auction drew scathing criticism from actor Robert Redford and a lawsuit by environmental groups, who are challenging the sale of 80 of 131 offered parcels.

Stephen Bloch, a staff lawyer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said a majority of the contested parcels were among the 116 sold Friday.

Many of the 13 parcels DeChristopher won were the subject of the lawsuit or protests filed by the National Park Service. In response to complaints from the Park Service and other groups, the BLM ultimately dropped more than half the 359,000 acres first proposed for auction, including drilling parcels that had been bunched up on the boundaries of Arches National Park.

Still, activists said Friday's sales included parcels that threaten Utah's wildlands or could spoil the view from some of the state's spectacular national parks.

DeChristopher said he was willing to leave his fate in the hands of U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman for what he described as a simple act of civil disobedience he took spontaneously.

He had arrived outside the government office building only to join a demonstration against leasing wild areas of Utah, then stepped inside a lobby hoping to draw a complaint. Instead, he met a friendly BLM clerk who asked if he was a bidder.

A college senior, DeChristopher said his education in economics wasn't even necessary, and that he didn't have any bidding strategy. At one point, he bid on a dozen successive parcels near national parks, but he said he knew only that the parcels were located somewhere near Moab.

"It was just raise my arm as often as possible, bidder No. 70," DeChristopher said Monday in an interview at a Salt Lake City restaurant. "I was trying to make it obvious I was there to disrupt the auction."

It might have been his bidding style, or the fact DeChristopher was wearing a purple down jacket and carrying a rough leather saddlebag. But after grabbing 13 parcels and running up prices generally, other bidders complained to BLM officials, who pulled DeChristopher out for questioning.

DeChristopher said he readily acknowledged he never intended to pay for his parcels.

"One of the parcels I took was for $2.25 an acre," he said. "That's shocking - that we can sacrifice our public lands for as little as $2.25 an acre."

DeChristopher was inspired. He finished the exam, threw on his red parka and went off to the controversial Bureau of Land Management land auction that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.” Instead of joining the protest outside, he registered as a bidder, then bought 22,000 acres of public land. That is, he successfully bid on the public properties, located near the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument, and other pristine areas. The price tag: more than $1.7 million.

He told me: “Once I started buying up every parcel, they understood pretty clearly what was going on ... they stopped the auction, and some federal agents came in and took me out. I guess there was a lot of chaos, and they didn’t really know how to proceed at that point.”

Patrick Shea, a former BLM director, is representing DeChristopher. Shea told the Deseret News: “What Tim did was in the best tradition of civil disobedience, he did this without causing any physical or material harm. His purpose was to draw attention to the illegitimacy and immorality of the process.”

There is a long tradition of disrupting land development in Utah. In his memoir, “Desert Solitaire,” Edward Abbey, the writer and activist, wrote: “Wilderness. The word itself is music. ... We scarcely know what we mean by the term, though the sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet been irreparably stunned, deadened, numbed by the caterwauling of commerce, the sweating scramble for profit and domination.”

Abbey’s novel “The Monkey Wrench Gang” inspired a generation of environmental activists to take “direct action,” disrupting “development.” As The Salt Lake Tribune reported on DeChristopher: “He didn’t pour sugar into a bulldozer’s gas tank. He didn’t spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder’s paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won’t be opened to drilling anytime soon.”

Likewise, the late Utah Phillips, folk musician, activist and longtime Utah resident, often invoked the Industrial Workers of the World adage: “Direct action gets the goods.”

More than just scenic beauty will be harmed by these BLM sales. Drilling impacts air and water quality. According to High Country News, “The BLM had not analyzed impacts on ozone levels from some 2,300 wells drilled in the area since 2004 ... nor had it predicted air impacts from the estimated 6,300 new wells approved in the plan.” ProPublica reports that the Colorado River “powers homes for 3 million people, nourishes 15 percent of the nation’s crops and provides drinking water to one in 12 Americans. Now a rush to develop domestic oil, gas and uranium deposits along the river and its tributaries threatens its future.”

After being questioned by federal authorities, DeChristopher was released.

The U.S. attorney is currently weighing charges against the student. DeChristopher reflects: “This has really been emotional and hopeful for me to see the kind of support over the last couple of days ... for all the problems that people can talk about in this country and for all the apathy and the eight years of oppression and the decades of eroding civil liberties, America is still very much the kind of place that when you stand up for what is right, you never stand alone.”

His disruption of the auction has temporarily blocked the Bush-enabled land grab by the oil and gas industries. If DeChristopher can come up with $45,000 by Dec. 29, he can make the first payment on the land, possibly avoiding any claim of fraud. If the BLM opts to re-auction the land, that can’t happen until after the Obama administration takes over.

The outcome of the sales, if they happen at all, will probably be different, thanks to the direct action of an activist, raising his voice, and his bidding paddle, in opposition.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America.

© 2008 Amy Goodman

Distributed by King Features Syndicate

Tim DeChristopher stood alone Friday when he placed bogus bids on drilling parcels near two Utah national parks, single-handedly sabotaging an oil- and gas-lease sale that caught the attention of Congress and the incoming Obama administration.

Now, the 27-year-old University of Utah economics student stands with powerful new friends, including Pat Shea, former head of the Bureau of Land Management; Utah's most prominent defense attorney, Ron Yengich; and hundreds of supporters promising to contribute to his legal-defense fund.

Others led him to this point, inspiring DeChristopher to oppose a government he fears is leading the world to climate disaster. His mother, Christine, helped start the West Virginia chapter of

the Sierra Club and took him as a small child to anti-coal rallies. Terry Root, a Stanford University scientist who worked with Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, put her hand on DeChristopher's shoulder and apologized for being too late to avert the worst effects of global warming. And Gore called on young people to commit acts of civil disobedience to stop greenhouse-gas belching coal-fired power plants.

"I don't ever want to have to look back at 2008 and know that there was still a slight chance that we could have done something to make a difference, and I didn't take that chance," DeChristopher said Monday. "Ethically, I have to pursue that chance."

That pursuit could land him in federal court.

Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City, said Monday that her office hadn't seen the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's investigative report. Federal prosecutors likely will do their own inquiry on whether DeChristopher's case should be brought before a grand jury, which wouldn't happen for weeks.

"The process is just starting," Rydalch said. "It will take time to evaluate evidence and make a determination whether we will prosecute."

BLM spokeswoman Mary Wilson said Monday the agency was considering what to do next. " This is so unprecedented," she said, "we don't know what our options are."

One possibility: Redo the lease auction. Normally, the agency must give 30 days' notice. But the BLM might be able to bypass that rule, Wilson said, by offering a shorter public-review period.

Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said her organization had no plans to take action against DeChristopher.

"We just hope the U.S. Attorney's Office makes sure this doesn't happen again," she said.

Mainstream conservation organizations, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which opposed the lease sale, remained on the sidelines.

"It's not clear whether this individual has broken any laws," Executive Director Scott Groene said Monday. "But SUWA doesn't condone any illegal activity."

Shea, who with Yengich is representing DeChristopher, said he stepped forward to help the student because when Shea was the BLM boss, anonymous protesters took destructive actions against the public-lands agency. By contrast, Shea said, DeChristopher has "integrity of purpose" that deserves protection in court.

BLM officials said DeChristopher bid $1.8 million -- which he has neither the intention nor the money to pay -- for more than 10 lease parcels near Arches and Canyonlands while driving up other bids by about $500,000.

After other oil and gas bidders complained, BLM special agents escorted out DeChristopher and his roommate, Kent Boardman, for a closed-door interview as the auction proceeded.

DeChristopher said Monday -- during an interview at his ad-hoc strategy center at the back of the One World Cafe in Salt Lake City -- that his conversation with the agents was open and honest. He told them he believed the auction was the real fraud, that it had been rushed through to beat the clock on the lame-duck Bush administration.

"I also felt it had been a threat to my future," he said, "and, in response to that, this was a conscious act of civil disobedience."

The agents spent even more time with Boardman. DeChristopher said they may have been trying to determine whether there had been some kind of conspiracy.

Rather, Boardman was surprised the first time his roomie raised bidding paddle No. 70.

"He said, 'What are you doing?' " DeChristopher recalled. Then, after DeChristopher won a bid, Boardman said, "'Do you have a plan?' "

DeChristopher said he acted because less brazen tactics weren't working to stop the drilling leases. To him, the big picture includes catastrophic famine, millions of refugees and an agricultural system killed off by climate disruption.

Meeting Terry Root, a speaker at this year's Wallace Stegner symposium at the U. law school, still resonates with DeChristopher: "There were things we could have done in the '80s, things we could have done in the '90s, but at this point, we're too late, my generation has failed you, and I'm sorry,' " the student recalled Root saying.

"That was a very powerful experience for me," DeChristopher said. "It really rocked me."

Frankly, he said, he was hoping for someone else to come along to take action. Yet in an essay he posted Saturday on the Web blog oneutah.org, DeChristopher quoted from June Jordan's 1980 "Poem for South African Women," when he wrote, "Hopefully all of us will realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for."

It's down to the wire, DeChristopher said, "down to one of our last opportunities here in the next couple of years to make drastic changes in order to ensure a livable future."

During a "Democracy Now" radio interview Monday morning, DeChristopher reiterated that he was willing to do prison time, but preferred staying free.

"I don't want to be a martyr or anything like that," he said.

He didn't pour sugar into a bulldozer's gas tank. He didn't spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder's paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won't be opened to drilling anytime soon.

Tim DeChristopher, 27, faces possible federal charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on more than 10 lease parcels that he admits he has neither the intention nor the money to buy -- and he's not sorry.

"I decided I could be much more effective by an act of civil disobedience," he said during an impromptu streetside news conference during an afternoon blizzard. "There comes a time to take a stand."

The Sugar House resident -- questioned and released after disrupting a U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease auction of 149,000 acres of public land in scenic southern and eastern Utah -- said he came to the BLM's state office in Salt Lake City to join about 200 other activists in a peaceful protest outside the building Friday morning. But then he registered with the BLM as representing himself and went to the auction room.

There, he thought about the times he has marched, fired off letters to his congressmen, signed petitions and supported environmental organizations -- all to no avail.

"What the environmental movement has been doing for the past 20 years hasn't worked," DeChristopher said. "It's time for a conflict. There's a lot at stake."

Plainclothes Salt Lake City police officers were in the room during the auction, the last to be held under the Bush administration. BLM spokeswoman Mary Wilson said the agency requested law-enforcement help due to perceived threats over the hotly disputed sale.

Another man also was detained and questioned about the possibility that he and DeChristopher had committed federal offenses by trying to impede the bidding process, BLM officials said. That man registered as Kent Boardman, of Salt Lake City,

Since the Election Day announcement of the lease sale, preservationists, conservationists, archaeologists, business owners, river runners, anglers and hunters have registered objections to the BLM's plans to allow drilling in some of Utah's most scenic redrock desert.

They challenged proposed leases near Arches National Park, the White River, the greater Desolation Canyon region, Labyrinth Canyon, the benches east of Canyonlands National Park, Nine Mile Canyon, the Book Cliffs and the Deep Creek Mountains.

Objections also have come from the National Park Service, members of Congress and John Podesta, the head of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, who said the lease sale should be halted or altered to accommodate environmental concerns.

In the face of the outrage, the BLM pulled back from its original proposal to lease 360,000 acres. Friday's sale included 149,000 acres in Carbon, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand and San Juan counties. The BLM said it sold 116 of 131 parcels (including DeChristopher's bids) for a total of $7.5 million.

Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said it was unusual to see a lease list trimmed so drastically. "The BLM was under a lot of pressure, unfairly," she said.

The auction had been under way for a couple of hours when energy company representatives became suspicious of a man wearing an old red down parka after he won bids on more than 10 parcels numbered consecutively, all around Arches and Canyonlands.

They told BLM officials that the man, brandishing bidding paddle No. 70 and unknown to the regular buyers, also seemed to be bidding up on parcels, raising prices on leases that others eventually won.

The auctioneer took a break and police asked the man, later identified as DeChristopher, to leave the room. After questioning him for more than an hour behind closed doors, BLM and law-enforcement officials requested assistance from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The federal attorneys' spokeswoman, Melodie Rydalch, confirmed the office was conducting an investigation, but declined to provide more details.

During the confusion that followed DeChristopher's removal, Sgamma said she had seen Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney David Garbett "communicating" with DeChristopher during the auction. She questioned whether SUWA had been acting in concert with the man the BLM dubbed a "nuisance bidder."

Garbett, however, said he gave DeChristopher his business card and asked him to call SUWA after the holidays because he had won parcels included in a federal lawsuit SUWA had filed against the lease sale.

After the auction, Kent Hoffman, the BLM's state deputy director for lands and minerals, announced there had been a bogus bidder. But the false bidder was "on the hook to pay," Hoffman said.

"Good," said a woman in the auction room. "Make them pay."

Hoffman said successful bidders who believed their offers had been run up illegally due could withdraw their bids.

BLM officialTerry Catlin said the agency didn't want to reopen the bidding on the parcels DeChristopher snagged unless all interested parties were able to compete for the leases. That means the parcels won't be available again until at least February -- after Obama takes office -- during the next scheduled auction.

DeChristopher, who acknowledged upping other bids by about $500,000, said he would be willing to go to jail to defend his generation's prospects in light of global climate disruption and other environmental threats.

"If that's what it takes," he said.

The Bush Administration auctioned off sections of the Utah wilderness to be used for oil and gas drilling. One man against the auction signed up as a bidder, sabotaging some of the bids and may now face fraud charges. Rachel Maddow is joined by Earthjustice president Trip Van Noppen.

Please pass it around as broadly as possible.  We'll post the results of the court hearing as it happens.

Note: This is only half of Tim's interview.  For the full interview, click here.

Posing As A Bidder, Utah Student Disrupts Government Auction of 150,000 Acres Of Wilderness For Oil & Gas Drilling

In a national broadcast exclusive, University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher explains how he “bought” 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from drilling. The sale had been strongly opposed by many environmental groups. Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said: "This is the fire sale, the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.”

Please donate to Tim's legal defense.