Tim DeCristopher was awarded drilling lease rights on 22,500 acres of federal land in Utah, but he has no intention to use them, and as a result could face fraud charges.
Tim DeCristopher, an environmental activist, walked into a federal drilling auction and placed a bid of $45,000 for the drilling rights on 22,500 acres of land with no intention of ever drilling on it. His hope is that incoming the Obama administration will withdraw the parcels from auction, because if forced to, he will have to raise the money or face prosecution.
Well, the money has been raised, but the Bureau of Land Management has said it’s too late for him to make the down payment because the deposit was due immediately, after last month’s auction.
Tim says there’s nothing to worry about though. In a letter to supporters, DeChristopher said he has a backup plan if he’s refused and the parcels are auctioned again. He says, “the money given to my Lease Fund will be used to acquire these parcels in the new auction.”
If nothing works out for Tim, he has a plan C. “In this event, I will contact the donors and ask them whether the money should be returned, used for my defense fund, or given to another active environmental cause.”
DeChristopher, a college economics student from Salt Lake City, bid up prices at the auction in an effort, he says, to protect wild lands in Utah, and the process was thrown into chaos and the bidding halted for a time before the sale of 132 parcels covering 164,000 acres was concluded.
A while ago, I did an article entitled Secretary of State for Climate Change Calls For Eco Activists and Agitators and Former Vice President Al Gore has recently asked activists to commit act’s of “Civil Disobedience”. It looks to me like Tim is taking our Government’s requests seriously. I only hope that the same Government allows him some leniency.
If you recognize the names “Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey” or “Henry David Thoreau”, then you may already know where I’m going with this next line of thinking.
Our Environment, our Planet, is the most important gift that we have, because it is from it, that we draw all the things that are essential to our lives. Most people leave its protection to our elected officials, but when our elected officials are the ones that contribute to its destruction, what are we left to do but suffer or take steps to protect it ourselves?
Should we applaud, or should we condemn acts of Tim DeCristopher? I think the guy is a hero. What do you think?
Source: MSNBC
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
If you’re so against fuel use you should kill yourself.
That will definitely lower your carbon footprint.
Jered,
I love getting comments like yours. “If you’re so against fuel use you should kill yourself. That will definitely lower your carbon footprint.”
What I’m against is drilling for oil inside of National Parks. But you probably don’t go to those, do you?
I wonder about you, as an individual. Are you living a high carbon lifestyle and feeling a little consumer guilt? Do you work for the oil industry? Or do you just like to inflame?
Anyway, have a great day and feel free to stop by any time.
Adam
@ Jared
Hmm, its always nice to see such well thought out arguments and relevant useful comments, they add so much to the debate!
Oh, trolls! I got some really mean comments on my post about DeChristopher, too. It’s much easier to make a nasty, ad hominem attack than to contribute to the conversation.
Tim DeChristopher is a hero. I think his act of civil disobedience shows how much difference one person can make!
Becky, I agree with you. Off to check out your article on Tim.
Who were the silly duffers who donated to him?!?!?
Geez.. must be the stupidest idiots this side of Hell. Don’t you see what this scammer is trying to do? Gods open your eyes and realise he is just scamming the interest on the fund and he isn’t going to do anything. What a slacker. You guys had better be careful he doesn’t disappear with the money because he can vanish so easily into the background and you will all be left with nothing.
Stupid people are born every minute. Don’t be another one.
Nice article. However, you failed to mention the greatest champion of Civil Disobedience – Mahatma Gandhi.
This man is a hero already in my eyes. If I could do something like that and still survive and feed my family, I would in a heartbeat.
@ Halbery
What an odd conclusion to draw from the information in the article.
Given that Tim DeChristopher didn’t have the money when he started bidding, that he stands to face serious legal action for fraud and that it is a really small amount of money, it would seem quite unlikely that he is doing it to scam the interest.
From what I have read he is doing a great thing and standing up for something he believes in a very public way. All power to him!!
You might not want to go too far into the comments…some are a bit brutal. The ones on Digg are worse, though. My post is over here.
So let me get this straight: if he doesn’t destroy the Earth and contaminate the surrounding area… he goes to jail.
If he DOESN’T destroy the ecosystem of his land (and in the process murder the animals that live there)…. he goes to jail.
If he doesn’t reinforce the American addiction for oil… he goes to jail.
If he buys land and wants to keep it in it’s beautiful condition…
he goes to jail.
I guess the only option is — destruction.
YOU WILL DESTROY THE EARTH!!! …or else.
This world would be a better place if humans just left it and let nature take its course. Congrats Adam on exemplifying another inspiring story.
TIP: to reduce the carbon footprint of this website, make it darker so LED screens soak up less energy.
He may ultimately get the rights, but if he does, you can be sure that there’ll be a clause in future auctions to force drilling.
Oh and I work for the oil industry as a geophysicist. We’re not all blind anti-environmentalists.
He shouldn’t say he has no intention of drilling. He can have “all the intentions of drilling, ” he just needs to set up a committee to explore exactly where this drilling will happen, and what kind of technology will be used, a geological survey could be done, and done again, and none of this will ACTUALLY happen, just be talked about…all of a sudden three years will pass, no drilling has happened and the 22,000 acre parcel is buried under a mountain of red tape and good intentions.
You don’t get any press for that, but in the end, you still save the land.
My thoughts on the matter:
I’m certainly not against drilling for oil and I’m not convinced a) humans are causing climate change or b) that it should be feared.
HOWEVER, I do support what this guy has done (although he should have had the cash before he bid up the price, that is essential). If enough people want this land to just for purposes other than oil then so be it. I’m against this ‘drilling rights’ nonsense – once you buy the land it’s yours to do with as you wish, and if that is sticking a middle finger to an oil company then so be it.
@Mordechai: Actually, that is a myth. There is no evidence that using a black background on a website will decrease energy usage. More info from Google.
A noble act. It makes me smile. But he has to be careful when playing games with the BLM. They only let each human go so far publicly before reigning it’s federal justice system down on your ass.
- smash the machine without mercy.
At Meg —
The PRECISE REASONS WHY he lodged the claim was
a) Because he HAD NO MONEY and
b) Because the money seems small to you but is HUGE TO HIM
I also bet its just another publicity stunt for his “resume”. Talking about lame ducks falling for his daffy duck routine. Please people, grow up and open your eyes and see this person for the douchebag he really is.
The guy’s got guts.
He had an idea and he went for it. Trying to protect something important to him. That’s hero stuff.
How many of us would go that far for something we believe in?
As a westerner, I want to see less petroleum development in our beautiful wild places. And none at all near our National Parks.
As a consumer, I want to see more clean energy, not the same old dirty fossil fuels. If those oil companies spent the same amount of money putting up wind turbines instead of tearing up the backcountry, drilling holes, we could really get somewhere with clean energy.
wow, that’s a gutsy thing to do. I gotta applaud it.
What really irks me is that they are selling public land for $2 an acre for someone to drill on it. Seems pretty dern cheap.
I wish there was more people like Tim DeCristopher in our world, it will be a better place.
Check out his website for more information and to help out:
http://www.bidder70.org/
@ Mordechai :
Actually, dark colors use MORE energy on LCD displays, which are now the more prevalent type available. The white backlight is generally on 100% of the time and uses a constant amount of energy. Different colors are achieved by the LCD screen filtering out color which takes energy. Filtering out all color, eg. black, takes the most energy for an LCD screen.
I was out yesterday and I’m just catching up on this. This man is indeed a hero in my eyes. This sounds like more scorched earth eco-ruin by GWB on the way out. And for all you brainless detractors, understand it’s not just “greenies” who are upset about this lease situation. I couldn’t believe it when I found out exactly where these parcels were.
From the Salt Lake City Trubune:
“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.”
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11274601
This guy is a true hero and deserves every help he can get. He did what many of us dream of sometimes, but never had the guts to do.
Maybe he now has shown us, that resistance against the systematical plundering of earth IS possible.
The fraud claims make sense, but I wonder if it’s standard protocol to pay at the time of auction or if they are just trumping up charges to prevent this from happening again. It seem quite feasible to me that the normal order of business is “bid now, pay later” or at least pay within a specific timeframe (30-90 days maybe?). Can someone familiar with the process clarify possibly?