Trial Begins for Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher, “Bidder 70”

Hundreds of people are rallying today outside the Utah courthouse where environmentalist Tim DeChristopher is facing two felonies, and ten years in prison, for disrupting an oil and gas auction.

At 27, as a University of Utah student, DeChristopher disrupted a Bureau of Land Management auction by offering fake bids for 13 parcels of land, for nearly $1.8 billion.

Soon after, a Utah lawmaker introduced legislation labeling this style of civil disobedience “eco-terrorism”:

Noel [the legislator] said stopping a legal oil lease is no different than â€œburning down a manâ€™s cattle operation â€” eco-terrorism.â€ DeChristopher â€œtook millions of dollars away from us, and heâ€™s laughing at us. Itâ€™s not right. Itâ€™s not fair.”

To find out more about Tim DeChristopher visit Bidder70.