On December 19 Utah resident Tim DeChristopher took creative and effective action to disrupt an auction that was selling off oil and gas leases on hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Utah. As around 100 concerned citizens rallied outside opposing the opening up of wilderness areas to the oil and gas industry, Tim entered the auction and started bidding. Time and again he outbid the speculators, and when he failed to outbid them he managed to drive the price way up. According to local news reports he “caused chaos” in the auction room, costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars and prevented 22,500 acres of land from being developed for fossil fuel extraction (at least for the time being). Tim’s actions were extremely effective at throwing a wrench in the works of the oil and gas industry and he is to be applauded.
Unfortunately, federal agents were not as sympathetic and detained Tim for a couple of hours. He may be facing federal charges in which case he will need our support. You can follow the link below to donate to his legal defense.
Local media coverage with video
Why I Disrupted A Fraudulent Auction. Statement from Tim DeChristopher
I have been an environmentalist for most of my life. I have marched, held signs, written letters and spoken to my Congressman. I have built trails and removed invasive species in National Parks. I have educated friends on climate change and donated to a dozen different groups. Countless others have done all these same things for decades in defense of our wilderness and a livable future.
It hasn’t worked. Even with a new administration, we are not on track for a livable future. This has been made clear by James Hanson, Bill McKibben, Al Gore and many others. The legitimate pathways to power have not provided us with the ability to defend the survival of our civilization. Yesterday I decided that the crisis facing us requires more critical action than has been taken in the past. When faced with the opportunity to seriously disrupt the auction of some of our most beautiful lands in Utah to oil and gas developers, I could not ethically turn my back on that opportunity. By making bids for land that was supposed to be protected for the interests of all Americans, I tried to resist the Bush administration’s attempt to defraud the American people.
At this point it appears that I was successful in my attempts to disrupt this fraudulent auction. The federal officials who took me into custody said that I cost the oil companies in the room hundreds of thousands of dollars and prevented 22,500 acres of land from being sold for fossil fuel development. I had a very open conversation with the federal agents about my motivations and values. They were friendly, respectful, and somewhat sympathetic. (editors note. It is never a good idea to talk to federal agents or any police. Always ask to speak to a lawyer before answering questions from police)
What I did no doubt puts me at significant risk, including prison. But my future was already at significant risk. As we get closer and closer to the point of too late, we have less and less to lose from resisting. Accepting the true depth of the climate crisis is extremely scary, but the purpose of fear is to motivate us to action. Many of us have sat around countless times saying how much we needed someone to do something. If I am not willing to take a stand for my generation, then who will? This year I have come to terms with the idea that I might be my own best hope to defend my future. Hopefully all of us will realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for.
pure awesomeness! first the lone activist in the UK shutting down Kingsnorth turbines, now this
Thank you, Tim, for this inspiring action. And thank you to It’s Getting Hot in Here for sharing this news. I’ll be holding Tim in my thoughts and looking to It’s Getting Hot in Here for updates on his case. Go Tim!!
this is amazing, I just donated.
Incredible, an inspiration to us all.
Bravo Tim. I’ve donated as well. Plus, I have 2 posts up on this at my web site Climaticide Chronicles:
http://climaticidechronicles.org/
and another one at Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/23/153223/11/691/676625#c22
It’s important to get this story as much publicity as possible, and then to conceive other equally creative and effective actions.
this is some amazing direct action. solidarity in the fight against natural gas drilling from our farms (including mine back home) in rural pennsylvania and other areas in the northeast that are being targeted by enron & halliburton… time to put more pressure on about this thing. freaking way to go to that dude.
This was awesome. No two ways about that, and extremely succesful attempt to inconvenience exploitation of the planet and protect our natural herritage. All the more impressive as a solo effort!
I was among 110 activists who managed to shut down the UK’s third largest airport for 6Hrs a couple of weeks back. 60 of us made it runway side and all have been charged for agrivated tresspass. There is a growing movement of people who are prepared to get arrested for the first time if it means highlighting the urgent need to protect our planet and maintain it as a livable place, perticularly mitigating the worst of climate change.
Solidarity friend.
Fantastic effort, Tim! This should act as an inspiration to others!
This man needs to be free!
And if he is not then none of us are
either way he is a hero, and I know that land well enough to say so.
anyone who has travelled there should tell you that it is a crime to deface it with industrial development. words cant describe how sacred it is.
I see the Wind turbine t-shirts–It seems to me that most of these go in rural areas, ruin the view, disrupt, divide up & cause friction in the neighborhood and the property values. Then the energy goes out of the area where the turbines are to some factory elsewhere possibly ohio where their fossil fuel burning is killing the lakes in the Northeast and even the bald eagle who has been brought back from extinction is now getting sick from them. Ecology means it has to work out with the whole system–if it doesn’t then it is not green–so if you’re supporting wind power better be sure of whom it is for and what the energy is going to be used for–the local community or job based zoning center-or– to somewhere else where it is helping to degreen and disagreen our planet, our plant-net, dudes, doodes, dudettes or doodies—Use you noodle so it is designed to not only not ruin the vista, but it doesn’t turn neighbor against neighbor, and some or all of the energy is to benefit the community where it is set up … otherwise, we aren’t going to make any progress, juist more of the same old same old…as Dylan said, in this case…”…the answer my friend is blowing in” our ” wind.