http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7456062.html
learn more at: http://www.bidder70.org/

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 03. 3.11
Business & Politics

I’m hanging out at the Garrison Institute this week, bracing myself against a stream of provocative ideas about the intersection between climate change, the human brain, and individual behavior. But this news, needless to say, broke the flow: Famed environmental activist Tim DeChristopher has been convicted on two felony counts, and now faces up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $750,000.

Here’s the AP:

An environmentalist has been convicted of making $1.8 million in false oil and gas drilling bids at a federal auction in a case that became a cause celebre among activists and Hollywood stars. Authorities say 29-year-old Tim DeChristopher made the bids to run up the price of 13 oil-and-gas leases near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks but lacked the ability to pay.

A federal jury reached its verdict Thursday, finding DeChristopher guilty of two felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction … A University of Utah economics student at the time, he offered to cover the bill with an Internet fundraising campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money.

This is truly unfortunate — recall that it was later ruled that the auction that DeChristopher disrupted was improperly conducted, and possibly illegal. DeChristopher engaged in a sort of nonviolent peaceful civil disobedience that’s all too rare in the modern era of tepid online blog activism.

The only solace we should take with this is that DeChristopher going to prison will only raise his profile — and drive his message, that the need for climate action is worth self-sacrifice, further into the mainstream. As Bill McKibben noted in a tweet after hearing the news, “”The government should give him a medal, not a sentence.”

Join the growing movement to help DeChristopher on Twitter with the tag #bidder70.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/climate-activist-tim-dechristopher-convicted-felonies.php

Federal jury in Utah convicts environmentalist
By CHI-CHI ZHANG Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press
March 3, 2011, 8:00PM
SALT LAKE CITY – An environmental activist was convicted Thursday of making $1.8 million in false oil and gas drilling bids at a federal auction in a case that became a cause celebre among avid supporters and Hollywood celebrities such as Robert Redford.

Tim DeChristopher, 29, made the bids to run up the price of 13 oil-and-gas leases near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks and push the land beyond the reach of buyers.

But in the end, he lacked the ability to cover his bids.

It took a federal jury about five hours to convict DeChristopher on two felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $750,000 at his June 23 sentencing.

DeChristopher remained stoic and resigned as the verdict was read, showing little emotion. Supporters, who filled more than half the courtroom, gasped and cried.

“Nobody told me this battle would be easy,” he later told more than 50 emotional fellow activists on the courthouse steps. “Because of what you have done on the outside, it doesn’t matter what happened on the inside.”

Supporter Maureen Simes, 43, of Salt Lake City, called the outcome a mistake.

“I hope this verdict will strengthen our cause,” the teary-eyed Simes said.

Defense attorney Ron Yengich told reporters it was a fair trial and he hoped for leniency at DeChristopher’s sentencing, given his client has no previous criminal history.

“He’s never had any problem with the law,” Yengich said.

DeChristopher simply wanted to raise awareness about aggressive drilling in pristine western areas, and had no malicious intent, the lawyer said.

In closing arguments, however, U.S. Attorney John Huber said DeChristopher “derailed, disrupted and sabotaged” the December 2008 auction in the final days of the Bush administration.

As Bush prepared to leave the White House to make way for President Barack Obama, the Bureau of Land Management held one of its final quarterly oil and gas lease auctions, offering 131 parcels that included nearly 150,000 acres of land. The auction drew criticism from environmental groups that called the sales illegal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Romney has said the case was not about “Big Oil” or the federal government, but about DeChristopher breaking the law.

His trial drew colorful courthouse demonstrations by members of his Salt Lake City non-profit group Peaceful Uprising, and attracted hundreds of supporters wearing orange sashes as a symbol of solidarity, including actress Daryl Hannah and Peter Yarrow of the 1960s folk-singing trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

As the trial kicked off earlier in the week, demonstrators gathered in Pioneer Park for an early morning rally, singing Pete Seeger’s famous protest song, “If I Had A Hammer,” shouting chants against government control of public lands, and waving signs that called for DeChristopher to be set free.

On the day of the 2008 auction, DeChristopher dressed casually, unlike most bidders, but posed as one of them. He said later he felt the stunt would make a stronger statement than merely protesting with demonstrators outside the Bureau of Land Management offices.

He didn’t deny disrupting the auction and hadn’t planned on actually winning the bids, but instead his intent was to simply raise the price of the leases closer to fair market value.

Federal prosecutors say he is the only person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of public land in Utah. They had offered plea deals, but DeChristopher chose a trial.

A University of Utah economics student at the time of the bids, DeChristopher offered to cover the bill with an Internet fundraising campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money.

DeChristopher testified during the trial that he didn’t intend to actually bid on the leases but decided during the auction that he wanted to delay the sale so the new Obama administration could reconsider the move.

A federal judge later blocked many of the leases from being issued.

Fellow environmentalists and supporters, including actor and director Redford, have made DeChristopher a folk hero of the movement, insisting he was standing up to a federal agency that violated environmental laws by holding the auction in the first place.

“He wanted to give some hope to people,” Yengich told jurors in closing arguments. “You may disagree with how he went about it, the government may disagree. But that was his purpose in being there. It wasn’t to fool anybody.”

Filming outside the courthouse was Telluride, Colo., filmmaker George Gage, who with his wife has spent more than two years working on an hour-long documentary about DeChristopher.

A rough cut of the film is expected to debut at Colorado’s Mountainfilm Festival at the end of May.

Gage hopes the project will be accepted by Utah’s Sundance Film Festival, which was founded by Redford.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/02-3

Statement of Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program
WASHINGTON – March 2 – Talk about short-term memory.

For the first time since 2010’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of Interior has granted a deepwater drilling permit — for a well in which BP has the largest financial stake. To do so without imposing stronger environmental and safety standards is a recipe for disaster. The agency must be naïve to think this is about Noble Energy, the applicant.

The Interior Department must start evaluating financial partners in its assessment of whether to grant drilling permits and should not be granting application status to minority interest partners.

By considering this drilling permit a venture of Noble Energy, which has a 23.25 percent financial stake in the operation, the Interior Department has its head in the sand. BP, the corporation responsible for 4.9 million barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, has a financial interest double that of the application’s namesake. A 46.5 percent share is nothing to scoff at.

Although Noble’s name is on the application, BP could have twice the say on safety or environmental matters – and we’ve seen how that plays out.

If the Obama administration is really as serious as it claims about reforming the deepwater drilling industry, it must uphold the standards it has proposed. This is no time to be waiving the new stringent regulations, particularly when the involved corporation has a history of environmental and worker abuses.

The tougher permitting process has not led to the $100 barrels of oil we are seeing today. It is not the cause for panic at the pump.

Going forward, the Obama administration must subject deepwater well applications to tougher scrutiny and take into account all financial partners in an application. In the future, a minority partner cannot be allowed to be the applicant. The Obama administration should consider the track record and financial partners of applicants before approving a permit.
.###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.

http://blog.al.com/press-register-commentary/2011/02/editorial_dolphin_deaths_let_s.html

Published: Friday, February 25, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Press-Register Editorial Board

GULF COAST residents are saddened by the recent deaths of baby bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the beginning of the year, 53 dead dolphins have washed ashore in four states, including Alabama. Most of them are calves.

Researchers are examining the dead dolphins, but it could be weeks – maybe months – before their results are fully known.

In the meantime, it’s crucial that everyone allow the science to run its course rather than speculate about what caused the baby dolphins’ untimely deaths. Too much is still unknown.

Understandably, scientists are alarmed – and puzzled. They are calling the deaths “unusual” and “unprecedented” as they ponder various theories.

The cause, they say, could be infectious disease, environmental factors such as cold water or natural cyclical changes in population. Or, the cause might be related to last April’s oil spill, which occurred within a month or so of the calves’ conception.

If oil were a factor, that would raise even more questions. For instance, might oil have entered the food chain, which would have implications for fish, shrimp and humans? Or might the oily sheen on northern Gulf waters have stressed pregnant dolphins as they surfaced for air?

Naturally, coastal residents want answers, and soon. The Gulf’s health is vitally important to Alabama and to the region for a myriad of reasons. If something’s wrong, we’re all affected.

But that is precisely why we cannot allow the dolphin deaths to become part of some politically charged debate. Scientists from NOAA are already involved in the investigation, and environmental groups are sure to weigh in on the issue, too.

These are the facts so far: An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 bottlenose dolphins live in the waters off Alabama and Mississippi. Their young calves are dying at or around birth and are washing up on the shorelines. No other species appears to be affected.

We all want to know more, of course. In the midst of the chaos, though, let’s hold fast to the facts and wait for solid, scientific conclusions.

_____________________________________________________

http://www.wbur.org/npr/134053912/gulf-spill-investigated-as-cause-of-dolphin-deaths

NPR

All Things Considered
Gulf Spill Investigated As Cause Of Dolphin Deaths

* By Elizabeth Shogren
* February 25, 2011, 4:01 PM

LISTEN NOW

Scientists are trying to determine whether there’s a link between last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and a spike in dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast. Sixty-seven bottlenose dolphins have washed up on Gulf beaches over the past few weeks. More than half – 35 – are babies.

Researchers are looking at other possible causes, including infectious disease or the abnormally cold winter, but the large numbers of dead calves are particularly unusual and alarming, researchers say.

Dolphins have an 11- or 12-month gestation period. These dead baby dolphins were conceived just before the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig leased by BP blew up April 20, triggering a massive oil spill.

“So, these animals were undergoing development during the height of the oil spill,” says Teri Rowles, the top marine mammal scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

She says it’s very worrisome to see such a large number of marine mammals die. “The oil spill is definitely on our list of potential causes, but we’re certainly not ruling in or out any causes at this point,” Rowles says.

At least two of the dead calves found over the past few days had what looked like oil on their faces.

Mandy Tumlin, the marine mammal coordinator for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, says those calves were discovered by cleanup crews surveying the beach of Grand Terre Island in southeast Louisiana.

“We’re concerned but we really can’t speculate. There’s a lot of factors that could play a role in an animal’s death,” she says.

Tumlin doesn’t expect to be able to confirm any cause of death until all the samples from the animals come back from labs. Most of the dead dolphin calves were found on the beaches of Alabama and Mississippi. Staff from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., collected them.

“It is very, very strange,” says Moby Solangi, the institute’s director. “Usually we see one or two calves, but this year it’s just a very, very large number.”

He says some of the calves were stillborn, some were premature and some died shortly after birth. His staff took samples from the decomposed carcasses and is doing autopsies on the dead dolphins that were still intact.

“We’re doing a forensic study and we’re trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Solangi says.

One of Solangi’s working theories is that these dolphins’ mothers ate fish contaminated with oil from the BP spill, and those contaminants passed through the mothers’ bloodstreams to the fetuses.

But there are other possibilities. Researchers are looking for signs of an infectious disease. They’ll also investigate whether the unusually cold winter played a role. A toxic algal bloom is another suspect.

Even if the oil spill did not directly cause these deaths, it still could be a factor.

Veterinary pathologist Greg Bossart, a dolphin expert at the Georgia Aquarium, says researchers are still trying to determine all the ways BP oil affected the Gulf’s ecosystem.

“When those interactions become unbalanced from the oil, then you’re prone to seeing new diseases emerge, predator-prey relationships change, temperatures change, [and] chemistry of the ocean change. All those indirectly affect the health of organisms,” Bossart says.

Experts say since dolphins are at the top of the food chain, they reflect what has happened to their environment.

“What we do know is that dolphins can be very good sentinels for what’s happening in our oceans and even what’s happening in our bodies,” Bossart adds.

Dead dolphins keep washing up day after day. Scientists say they’ll investigate every animal they find.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/dead-dolphins-death-gulf_n_828153.html

by Steve Gorman
Posted: 02/25/11 10:35 AM

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters/Leigh Coleman) – The death toll of dolphins found washed ashore along the U.S. Gulf Coast since last month climbed to nearly 60 on Thursday, as puzzled scientists clamored to determine what was killing the marine mammals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the alarming cluster of recent dolphin deaths “an unusual mortality event,” agency spokeswoman Blair Mase told Reuters.

“Because of this declaration, many resources are expected to be allocated to investigating this phenomenon,” she said.

Although none of the carcasses bore outward signs of oil contamination, all were being examined as possible casualties of petrochemicals that fouled the Gulf of Mexico after a BP drilling platform exploded in April 2010, rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor, officials said.

Eleven workers were killed in the blast, and an estimated 5 million barrels (205.8 million gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Gulf over more than three months.

As of Thursday, the remains of 59 dolphins, roughly half of them newly born or stillborn calves, have been discovered since January 15, on islands, in marshes and on beaches along 200 miles of coastline from Louisiana east across Mississippi to Gulf Shores, Alabama, officials said.

That tally is about 12 times the number normally found washed up dead along those states during this time of the year, which is calving season for some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins in the region.

“We are on high alert here,” said Moby Solangi, director of the private Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi. “When we see something strange like this happen to a large group of dolphins, which are at the top of the food chain, it tells us the rest of the food chain is affected.”

At least 29 of the specimens recovered in recent weeks have been positively identified as bottlenose dolphins.

Solangi said that scientists from his organization have performed full necropsies, the animal equivalent of autopsies, on about a third of the roughly two dozen dead calves.

“The majority of the calves were too decomposed to conduct a full necropsy, but tissue samples were collected for analysis,” he said.

The latest wave follows an earlier tally of 89 dead dolphins — virtually all of them adults — reported to have washed ashore in 2010 after the Gulf oil spill.

Results from an examination of those remains, conducted as part of the government’s oil spill damage assessment, have not been released, though scientists concluded those dolphins “died from something environmental during the last year,” Mase said.

“The number of baby dolphins washing ashore now is new and something we are very concerned about,” she added.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/02/24/urged-engage-energy-cooperation-cuba/

Published February 24, 2011

Washington – The United States should begin a direct dialogue with Cuba to promote energy and environmental cooperation and reduce the island’s dependence on Venezuela, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

The independent, non-profit organization, which advocates for an easing of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, outlined in its 59-page report 10 changes that Washington should adopt to promote energy cooperation with the Communist-ruled island as Havana prepares to start tapping offshore oil deposits.

“After living through the BP spill, we can’t maintain the illusion that the embargo will stop Cuba from drilling and must instead adopt policies that protect U.S. economic, environmental, and foreign policy interests,” CDA Executive Director Sarah Stephens said.

Citing the U.S. Geological Survey, the CDA said approximately 5 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie beneath the Gulf of Mexico in land belonging to Cuba.

The discovery of commercially viable amounts of oil would transform and provide stability to the Cuban economy and is “likely to significantly alter” the island’s relations with oil-rich, leftist-led Venezuela and the rest of Latin America, Asia and other leading energy producing and consuming nations, the report said.

At present, Cuban energy production falls short of daily domestic demand and leaves the island dependent on Venezuela for roughly two-thirds of its energy supply.

The CDA calls the U.S. embargo a Cold War remnant that prohibits U.S. companies from “joining Cuba in efforts to extract its offshore resources” and leaves the United States without a viable action plan in the event of a potential oil spill such as the recent BP oil disaster.

The report, which encourages direct dialogue to ensure protection of the countries’ mutual interests, proposes that Washington permit an exchange of scientific information and allow U.S. firms to work with Cuba on “efforts to protect drilling safety.”

The CDA also calls on the U.S. Congress to support a bipartisan measure introduced last year by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would allow U.S. companies “to participate in oil exploration and effective crisis planning with Cuba.”

The report comes amid expectation that Cuba will drill 20 wells by the end of 2011, mainly in the area between Havana and Varadero. Exploratory drilling led by foreign companies, meanwhile, will continue with the aim of locating new deposits and ascertaining the full potential of Cuba’s offshore Economic Exclusive Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cuba’s EEZ covers a 112,000-kilometer (43,243-mile) area that has been divided into 59 blocks; the island’s partners in its offshore drilling plans include Spain’s Repsol-YPF, Venezuela’s PDVSA and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/02/24/urged-engage-energy-cooperation-cuba/#ixzz1Ew8Daywx