Activist Disrupts Sale of Utah Oil and Gas Drilling Leases
December 21, 2008 · Print This Article
On December 19th, the Bush Administration held an auction in Salt Lake City for oil and gas drilling leases on land adjacent to national parks. A lot of people have been upset about this ‘fire sale’ ever since it was announced, and one activist decided to do something about it.
Tim DeChristopher, fully expecting to be arrested and charged, drove up the price of land parcels by bidding them up with no intention of paying for them. The environmental activist was escorted from the Bureau of Land Management offices after throwing the process into chaos before the sale of 132 parcels covering 164,000 acres was concluded.
From MSNBC:
“He’s tainted the entire auction,” said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.
Buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids, Hoffman said.
The FBI was questioning a man who registered for the auction as Tim DeChristopher of Salt Lake City, said the bureau’s Utah Energy Team Leader Terry Catlin.
Other bidders at the auction complained about DeChristopher as unfamiliar and bidding in an unconventional fashion, which raised suspicions, Catlin said.
DeChristopher is believed to have won the bidding on 13 parcels and driven up the price of several others. He said he successfully bid on more than $1.7 million in parcels.
It’s pretty hilarious to imagine all of these uptight oil and gas company representatives and government officials getting all worked up over an “unfamiliar” man bidding in an “unconventional fashion”. Good for him for disrupting the process. This ‘midnight sale’ was unfair in the first place, so it serves them right to have to deal with some confusion and delay.
Link [MSNBC]
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Good for him!
The rest of the story may be viewed here:
http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/info/more/op_eds_etc/10_6_oil_and_gas_leasing.html
“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” Pres. Obama 1-20-09