Word: auctioneer
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...Still, the outlaw spirit lives on in the work of contemporary monkeywrenchers like Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old college student who singlehandedly disrupted a multi-million-dollar land auction that would have put hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in southern Utah in the hands of oil and gas companies. But DeChristopher didn't use sabotage or homemade bombs-just chutzpah. (See the top 10 green ideas...
...Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which administers America's public lands, was running the auction on Dec. 19, in the waning days of the Bush Administration. Environmental groups including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) had been fighting the move, arguing that the energy companies would damage nearby national parks and culturally sensitive areas. But the fight seemed lost, until DeChristopher, an economics student at the University of Utah, arrived at the sale. "I saw this as a very corrupt and fraudulent process, and a threat to my future," he says...
...decided to do something, but what? He thought about making a show or a speech, but as he watched the rapid-fire auction unfold around him he had an idea. He would bid himself-entirely without the cash to pay for any land he might win. "I thought I'd just drive up the prices," DeChristopher says...
...officials thought it was odd that a 27-year-old dressed like he'd just gotten out of class-as DeChristopher had-was bidding for oil and gas leases, they didn't say anything. At first he simply bid near the beginning of an auction, to keep prices rolling, but as the sales continued, he started to win plots of land-12 parcels in all, more than 22,000 acres, at the cost of $1.79 million. By the end, DeChristopher was simply bidding nonstop, and BLM officials finally caught on to what he was doing and took him into custody...
...Though DeChristopher's unique protest brought significant attention to the Utah auction-CBS News, among others, profiled him-the sale was doomed for other reasons. On Jan. 17 a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the BLM, siding with the green groups that argued that oil and gas exploration would inflict irreparable harm on the local environment. The BLM has yet to respond, but the Obama Administration has indicated in the past that it is opposed to the lease. DeChristopher's actions may or may not have been noticed by the White House, but greens insist they certainly...