Activist faces prison protecting wild lands

[NMDemDist2]

SALT LAKE CITY — An environmental activist tainted an auction of oil and gas drilling leases Friday by bidding up parcels of land by hundreds of thousands of dollars without any intention of paying for them, a federal official said.

The process was thrown into chaos and the bidding halted for a time before the auction was closed, with 116 parcels totaling 148,598 acres having sold for $7.2 million plus fees.

"He's tainted the entire auction," said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.

Hoffman said buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids if they think they paid too much.

Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah economics student, said his plan was to disrupt the auction and he feels he accomplished his goal.

DeChristopher won the bidding on 13 parcels, auction records show, and drove up the price of several other pieces of land.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/21/tim-dechristopher-throws-_n_152661.html

I think we should get all the Conservation groups should get together and actually BUY the leases.

[ellie]

1. And maybe a defense fund

[Danascot]

2. So these Land Management bozos

don't prequalify their bidders? This is routinely done for any serious auction. If one of their buddies had bought the leases to exploit the land or hold it out of production, Bush's BLM would have found a way to make "arrangements" to pay when it was convenient ... or maybe in exchange for some blow and a blow job.