Posts Tagged DeChristopher
BREAKING: Tim DeChristopher Thrown into Solitary Confinement By Anonymous U.S. Congressman
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Bush Administration, Bush Failures, Civil liberties Infringement, Climate Change, Corporate Socialism, Crimes, DeChristopher, Economic Exploitation, Energy, George W. Bush, Global Warming, Political Corruption, Public Lands, Republicans, Salt Lake City, Terrorism, Tim DeChristopher, utah, Utah Politics, Wilderness on March 28, 2012
Photo: (Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Update March 29, 2012: Our outrage and phone calls worked; Tim was released this morning in advance the press conference. (see video)
We are lost as a nation when Big Oil can inflict still greater punishment than a Federal Court itself through an anonymous congressional proxy. This is too outrageous for words. It’s Kafkaesq.
You can read more about this new travesty of justice here, here, here and here.
DeChristopher’s legal team has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. press conference on TOMORROW (Thurs, March 29, 20112) in front on the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse, at 350 Main Street in Salt Lake City, to announce Tim’s appeal and discuss issues related to DeChristopher’s confinement. Source
Please join us there! But first, please make some phone calls.
DEMAND Tim DeChristopher inmate #16156-081 be immediately removed from the Special Housing Unit (SHU) and placed back in the Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.
530-827-8000, Richard B. Ives, WARDEN, Eloisa DeBruler, Public Information Officer
202-307-3198, Charles E. Samuels, Jr., Director
PRIORITY CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS TO CALL:
Jim Sensenbrenner, WI, Chairman of Subcommittee, (202) 225-5101
Louie Gohmert, TX, Vice Chairman of Subcommittee, (202) 225-3035
Jason Chaffetz, UT, DC: (202) 225-7751 UT: (801) 851-2500
Breaking: BLM Fines Tim DeChristopher $81 Thousand Dollars
Posted by Cliff Lyon in DeChristopher, Ethics, Tim DeChristopher, utah, Utah Politics on April 5, 2009
¶Tim DeChristopher’s lawyers received the bill Friday, a day after he was indicted on a pair of felony auction-rigging charges. The bill was characterized by one of the lawyers and Bureau of Land Management officials as a demand for a civil penalty unrelated to the criminal proceedings.
¶DeChristopher said he has raised around $100,000 from a broad range of supporters. Weeks after the Dec. 19 auction, he offered to make a down payment on his bids, but was flatly rejected by the BLM, which said it was too late.
¶The fine the BLM issued Friday was unrelated to any deposit or money DeChristopher owes on his bids. It opens a possible civil claim that DeChristopher can contest in an administrative appeal, according to BLM officials.
BREAKING! Tim DeChristopher Indicted! Show Trial Ahead
Posted by Cliff Lyon in DeChristopher, Tim DeChristopher, utah, Utah Politics on April 1, 2009
Tim DeChristopher INDICTED! US Attorney Brett Tolman (Utah) has leveled formal charges. Tim’s response
This will be a political show trial at taxpayer expense.
Please join www.bidder70.org to support Tim’s brave action. If you are a DKOS diarist, please go there and recommend this post.
A grand jury indicted Tim DeChristopher this afternoon. He’s charged with two counts of violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Act.
Democracy Now: 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.”
This is about politics. US Attorney Brett Tolman (Jason Chavetz look-alike) is Orrin Hatch’s ‘boy.’ I think we may assume Tolman has given up any hope to being retained by Obama’s Justice Department and is gunning for Jim Matheson’s (D-UT) seat or the new 4th District seat.
Utah Now (full story): He’s the 27-year-old college student and environmental activist who disrupted a public land auction last month by bidding up several parcels intended for oil and gas development. Join us as we take a closer look at what some are calling a case of modern-day monkey wrenching.
Please donate to Tim’s Legal Defense
Closing the barn doors after the horses are gone
Posted by Becky Stauffer in DeChristopher, This Blog, Tim DeChristopher on March 13, 2009
You have to give him credit for trying. Utah State Rep Mike Noel of Kanab managed to get his bill through which would punish land lease bidders who have no intention of buying those leases. This, of course, is directed at the action of our local hero, Tim DeChristopher, whose spontaneous idea managed to disrupt a fraudulent auction (the lease sales from which were later canceled by the Obama administration).
The thing is this: it’s been done. No-one would attempt to do it again because clearly the parties involved will now be very alert to any such possibility. It couldn’t happen twice. It really was the perfect protest, at the right time and done in the best possible, peaceful way. I’d call it a work of art in the civil disobedience arena, and one that cannot be duplicated.
So why do we need Rep. Noel’s bill? I guess because it always makes people feel better when they prevent something that really upset and frustrated them from happening again in the future – even if there’s no possibility of that event.
Tim DeChristopher is still the champion!
Leases Canceled and Oil Companies Lie
Posted by Becky Stauffer in Barack Obama, DeChristopher, Economic Exploitation, Energy, Environment, Lying, Tim DeChristopher, utah on February 5, 2009
Cliff posted yesterday the breaking news that Obama’s new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had nullified the BLM’s illegal sale of leases to drill for gas and oil near Utah’s national parks.
The response from the oil industry was predictable:
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. [emphasis added]
So what about this?
Drillers cutting back in Utah’s biggest gas field
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The frenzied pace of drilling in Utah’s biggest gas field, the Uinta Basin, has seen a big decline with falling petroleum prices and tight bank credit.
The number of rigs at work statewide is down to 23, half of the number as last August, according to figures the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining plans to release Wednesday.
Also, the number of gas wells completed in January was 63, down from 84 for the same month last year.
Most of Utah’s drilling activity takes place near Vernal in the Uinta Basin, where one player, Colorado-based Gasco Energy, says it called off an expensive experiment to do horizontal drilling, which can dramatically boost production.
Gasco cited declining prices for Rocky Mountain natural gas, which is hard to pipe out of the region.
You bet the oil companies want to tie up these leases, whether they develop them or not. Look at the thousands of leases for off-shore drilling they now own but have never developed. And still, they want more of those too. And they want to rip up the delicate Utah landscape for oilshale as well!
The oil companies are not interested in our security so much as their own profits. With oil prices so low, there will be no new development. The oil companies try to make themselves look like patriots in this debacle. Let’s not be deceived. It’s only about money.
Breaking: Salazar Vindicates Tim DeChristopher. Press Conf Today!
Posted by Cliff Lyon in DeChristopher, Tim DeChristopher on February 4, 2009
Breaking: Interior Secretary Salazar to invalidate BUSH/BLM oil & gas leases auctioned on Decmber19th
I am directing my efforts to building Peaceful Uprising to encourage, train, support and defend those who will take nonviolent direct action to defend our future. – Tim, 2.4.2009
Tim DeChristopher will hold a press conference at 4pm today at the east side of the Utah State Capitol. That’s today Feb 4, 2009
Prison Time for Utah Hero Means Death to an Entire Generation
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Bush Administration, Bush Failures, Economy, Tim DeChristopher, Utah Politics on January 4, 2009
Its been my great honor getting to know Tim DeChristopher since his brilliant act of civil disobedience. But it is especially sobering to consider that he could easily end up in prison. I understand, the willingness to suffer years of incarceration is part of the romanticism of civil disobedience. But it this case, it would send a devastating signal to this generation.
One of Tim’s most ardent and more senior supporters chaffed at the decision to raise money to cover the $45,000 bond on the leases exclaiming, “What’s the point of civil disobedience if you’re not willing to go to jail?”
Just the day before, after meeting with the lawyers, Tim quietly corrected me when I used the word ‘jail’. “It’s federal prison” he reminded me. That hit me like a ton of bricks. Tim is your average exceptionally bright, humble and brave guy trying to do the right thing and suddenly faced with years in a federal prison.
Tim is at the mercy of a politically motivated federal prosecutor in a state that – lets get serious – HATES environmentalists and loves Oil & Gas jobs. If you need to be reminded, take a moment to review a few Utahn’s sentiments toward Robert Redford.
“Please know that by stopping the gas and oil development many families and communities will be hurt tremendously.”
“Interesting that all these rich people are so ‘for the environment’ and so out of touch of the rest of the people, their neighbor, brother, sister, other human beings. At what point are they going to get it (probably never) that PEOPLE and their livelihoods are more important.”
“Can you say elitist snobs or environmental hippocrites [sic]?”
Unfortunately, we are not dealing with a simple matter of right and wrong or of justice and law. Tim is facing a complex combination of forces uninterested in the future and welfare of a college student who acted out of frustration by the failure of an entire movement to stop eight years of a devastating and illegal assault on the environment by the Bush administration.
Tim’s generation is looking at a worldwide scientific community telling us its probably too late; that the environment is past the tipping point. Tim’s generation has two choices: become hysterical, or do nothing. We wonder why today’s youth are so apathetic.
Lets send a message to Tim’s generation by doing everything we can to keep him out of ‘prison.’ The alternative will not only destroy Tim’s life, and justify the apathy, but it will also signal an entire generation to just give up.
Help us raise $45,000.00 by Jan 9th. You can check our progress at www.Bidder70.org.*
* We are over $18,000 as of this writing.
Together We Stand
Posted by Tim DeChristopher in American History, American People, DeChristopher, Tim DeChristopher, Utah Pollution on December 26, 2008
I thought I was acting alone. I thought what I did last Friday at the BLM oil and gas auction was just an individual act of civil disobedience against a fraudulent auction and against a cruel leadership indifferent to the future of my generation.
I was wrong. What I have learned since then is that America is still a place where when you stand for what is right, you never stand alone. I can now see that I acted together with all Americans who respect the right as much as the law. I stood with Thoreau, Adams, Parks and Bob Moses. I now stand with the thousands who have expressed their solidarity with my act and will join me in Washington DC on March 2nd for the Capitol Climate Action.
The tremendous outpouring of support which I have received in response to disrupting the BLM’s oil sale has been overwhelming for me. I can only assume that the thanks many of you have offered is not thanks for doing what you won’t, but thanks for awakening your own sense of efficacy. My actions were just the striking of the match head. The purpose of a match is not to light the world by its own flame, but to ignite the tinder and kindling which keeps the fire going. If my act is to be relevant, it must ignite the tinder of grassroots uprising which will burn the fires of change around the world.
The tinder of support already burning has given me hope that this country is ready to meet the urgent challenge before us. That challenge is clear and cannot be understated. James Hansen, the IPCC, Al Gore and others have warned in no uncertain terms that the next couple years are our last chance to take drastic action in response to climate change if we are to protect our civilization as we know it. I believe America is ready to make the sacrifices necessary to rise to that challenge.
For decades the environmental movement has been dominated by cadre-based organizations who told the rest of us to just let the professionals handle things. We have been told that the best we can do is to sign an internet petition and send our donations so that Big Green could hire lobbyists to fight our battles. The upwelling of grassroots energy is finally responding that we are willing and able to do much more. We have discovered that hope for genuine change resides not on K Street or with Obama, but in ourselves. This uprising holds true to the faith that our heritage of civil disobedience is not dead and that we can again make this a government of the people.
In 2009 our new Congress and new President will decide our fate. They will either show heroic courage in standing up to powerful interests and defending our future, or they will demonstrate tragic failure. Failure to respond to this unprecedented crisis. Yet they can only follow the trail we break. So as they decide, we will be there. We will be in Washington on March 2nd, and we will be in every community in America all year long refusing to surrender the future of all for the short term profits of the few. Every one of us faces our own opportunities to make a difference. By responding to those individual challenges to our conscious, together we will defend our future.
The Greatest Christmas Gift
Posted by Tim DeChristopher in Bush Failures, DeChristopher, Environment, Global Warming, Tim DeChristopher, utah, Utah Politics on December 25, 2008
Thank you all so much for your support. It gives me real hope for my future to see so many others who are willing to stand up and take action. While my act may end up protecting some land and keeping some oil in the ground, the real significance will be seen when all of you take action to resist the path of destruction that we are on.
That is the greatest Christmas gift I could have asked for. I hope to see you all on March 2nd in Washington DC.
Thank you and Merry Christmas to you all – Tim
Please Thank Tim DeChristopher!
Posted by Cliff Lyon in Bush Administration, DeChristopher, Energy, Environment, Tim DeChristopher on December 20, 2008
Tim DeChristopher
Please thank Tim in a comment on this post. And please also donate whatever you can to his legal defense.
Yesterday, in a brave act of civil disobedience, Tim DeChristopher threw a Monkey Wrench into one of the Bush Administration’s parting shots at environmentalist and the American people.
Please ask everyone you know to register their gratitude and support for Tim here or on his statement.
Media so far… Read the rest of this entry »
Why I Disrupted A Fraudulent Auction
Posted by Tim DeChristopher in American People, Bush Administration, DeChristopher, Environment, National Politics, Republicans, Tim DeChristopher, utah, Utah Pollution on December 20, 2008
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.
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.
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