Saving Utah One Auction at a Time

Just before the holidays the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency within the Department of Interior, held a controversial oil and gas lease auction.  The lands where the leases are available are in southern Utah, and a number of the areas are adjacent to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, among other places in that neck of the woods.

Tim DeChristopher, a 27 year old graduate student in economics at the University of Utah showed up at the Salt Lake City Bureau of Land Management office anticipating that he would participate in the protest outside the doors while the auction proceeded inside.  Instead, apparently on a whim, he registered as a bidder, got his paddle with the number 70 on it, and began bidding on 13 lease parcels for a total of $1.8 million.  That is until the other bidders, all with oil and gas companies, realized DeChristopher was "not one of them," and called the cops.

Since this is America, he was detained, questioned, and the case was referred to a federal prosecutor.  There is, after all, laws against this sort of thing.

But DeChristopher has not gone down silently.  He began fund raising for the $45,000 necessary to hold his bids.  Within days, he raised the money.  A former director for the Bureau of Land Management, Pat Shea, has volunteered to represent the graduate student.  And DeChristopher is talking seriously about raising the rest of the $1.8 million to buy the leases outright (although there is some discussion whether the current mining law, written in 1872, yes, that's right, will require him to actually mine the lands).  

Of course, the oil and gas companies were ballistic.  One was quoted mentioning a lynching party when they realized DeChristopher was upping the ante on the bidding.  They are probably ballistic over the favorable media attention this auction monkey-wrencher has been receiving.  And thus, the oil and gas folks are encouraging criminal prosecution, alleging since he was not a oil "player" he came to the auction with fraudulent intent.

While DeChristopher's actions seem novel, it reminded me of environmental organizations bidding on grazing leases with the US Forest Service in New Mexico a number of years ago.  The US Forest Service debated the legality of Forest Guardians having grazing leases with no intention of grazing on them, but in the end, Forest Guardians won out.  But at this point, DeChristopher is a hero.  His bidding was noted in Huffington Post, Democracy Now, and Truthout.  He was belatedly written about in the Washington Post and New York Times.

Although I have to also note when he talks about being frustrated with the system and looking for ways to stop the auction, it is the same language the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) cell members used when describing the preludes to their becoming radical.  In other words, they became frustrated working with the system and decided to torch something instead.  To DeChristopher's credit, he worked within the system, and in all actuality probably did a better job stopping the drilling or at least bringing attention to the location of the potential leases, than if he resorted to committing property damage.  In fact, his actions were pretty darn radical in a wonderful way.

Of course, as is always the case when activism plays by the rules and wins, the rules will more than likely change.  Years ago it was all the vogue to buy shares of stock and show up at corporate shareholders' meetings, raise a ruckus, maybe even introduce a new by-law.  People with as disparate backgrounds as environmentalists to Calpers, the largest institutional investor in America (Calpers is the California Pension System) used this method to push for corporations to change.  But corporate executives, not enjoying this kind of brouhaha at their meetings, frequently changed the rules, so that now, most shareholder meetings are PowerPoint presentations on why shareholders should appreciate the fact the executives are acquiring tons of stock options and milking the company until they leave with huge severance packages.

I think if the federal government is going to sell rights to natural resources through this kind of bid process there should be no problem if someone shows up, bids, wins, and comes up with the money, regardless of their intent to log, drill, or graze.  In other words, the highest bidder should obtain the right, whether they intend to use it or not.  Isn't that capitalism?  In DeChristopher's case I imagine it will be fairly easy for him to find some angel who will donate $1.8 million to protect land near the Arches or Canyonlands from oil rigs.  However, if I was a fiscal watchdog for the federal government, I would wonder how it is they are conducting auctions without verifying the assets of bidders in the room?  Do they need someone from Christies or Sothebys to show them how to do it?

Of course, there are lots of land management issues with this particular auction.  It seems to me that many in the preservation community believe that the boundaries of National Parks extend beyond the actual boundaries on the map.  In this case, the Bureau of Land Management, also, like the National Parks under the Department of Interior, manages much of the land outside Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  And indeed, one of the missions, if you will, of the BLM is to use the land for minerals and grazing.  On a larger policy level, we might want to think about addressing this boundary issue.  Should boundaries of National Parks extend beyond the designated boundary such that visitors to the Parks don't see logging or mining operations (much less ORV use)?  Do we re-configure boundaries, which are somewhat artificial to begin with, by looking at similar ecotopes?  It is, of course, a thorny question, but it seems to me all sides to this issue in Utah, Montana, Wyoming in particular have entrenched to the point resolution seems against each of their interests.  But trying to resolve it through bidding at auctions or protests or pursuing criminal action is, well, not exactly big picture.  

Sooner or later we are going to have to realize we need to find a middle ground...

In the meantime, DeChristopher's donation web site is: www.bidder70.org.