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July 27, 2011

Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Sentenced to 2 Years For Disrupting Federal Oil and Gas Auction 
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The environmental activist Tim De Christopher has been sentenced to two
years in prison for a bold action that prevented a mass sell-off of
public wilderness in 2008. De Christopher was convicted of interfering
with a public auction when he disrupted the Bush administration’s
last-minute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights in Utah.
De Christopher posed as a bidder and won drilling lease rights to 22,000
acres of land in an attempt to save the property from oil and gas
extraction. On Tuesday, De Christopher was fined $10,000 and immediately
taken into custody to begin serving his 24-month sentence. Twenty-six
people were arrested protesting the sentencing outside the courthouse.
Speaking in court, De Christopher reportedly said: "You can put me in
prison, but it will not deter my future of civil disobedience and it
won’t deter others who are willing to fight to defend a livable
future."



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