DeSmogBlog
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher is set to be released from prison on Earth Day, this Sunday April 21st, since being incarcerated on July 26, 2011. It's amazing to consider his release from prison lands right on Earth Day. Poetic justice abounds.
Tim DeChristopher created quite a ripple in the activist community when he tried to buy millions of dollars of land in December of 2008 in order to stop the oil and gas industry from snatching it up at an illegitimate auction put on by the outgoing Bush administration. While the incoming Obama administration cancelled the auction, Tim was caught in the fallout, while the rest of the auctioneers presumably roam free. He was slapped with two federal felony charges - one for making false statements and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act.
Tim's trial was pushed back 6 times over two years and was fraught with maddening plot twists. The judge refused to let Tim use the Necessity Defense or let the jury know crucial facts, including that the auction was illegal. Tim was also prohibited from testifying on how he acted on moral convictions relating to climate change.
His prison term was no less eventful. During March of last year, Tim was thrown in isolated confinement for two and a half weeks after writing correspondence that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) deemed potentially harmful because it contained the word "threat." It turned out he was only "threatening" to return a potential legal fund donation from a company whose ethics weren't aligned with his own.
Tim DeChristopher is a hero to the Earth. Tonight he will be speaking and taking Q&As
at the premier of the documentary "Bidder 70" in Salt Lake City.
Mon, April 22, 2013
AT 07:00 pm Tower Theatre (Tower)
876 E 900 S
Salt Lake City, UT
A shocking look at just how far the energy industry and the government will go just to crush one voice...Michael Moore
Today and everyday let's all live our principles and be Bidder #70.
Earth Day Exclusive from Democracy Now: Exclusive interview with Tim DeChristopher H/T aliasalias in comments
GREAT NEWS UPDATE: We have reached our goal of 1 million comments to the State Dept.re the XL pipeline!! Don't stop now, if you haven't sent in your comment you may do so HERE
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"Green Diary Rescue" is Back!
After a hiatus of over 1 1/2 years, Meteor Blades has revived his excellent series. As MB explained, this weekly diary is a "round-up with excerpts and links... of the hard work so many Kossacks put into bringing matters of environmental concern to the community... I'll be starting out with some commentary of my own on an issue related to the environment, a word I take in its broadest meaning."
"Green Diary Rescue" will be posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.
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