On Dec. 19th University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher entered an auction that was selling off hundreds of thousands of acres for oil and gas development in the wilderness of southern Utah. Continually outbidding industry speculators, or when outbid driving the price up, DeChristopher effectively monkey-wrenched the auctioning off of once protected wilderness. Local news reports say DeChristoper turned the auction room into chaos costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars and at leas temporarily protecting over 22,000 acres from fossil fuel extraction.
Federal agents detained DeChristopher and will possibly charge him with federal fraud charges.
Read Tim DeChristopher’s statement here.
Listen to him on Democracy Now! here.
Local media coverage here.