Editor's Note: Activist Tim DeChristopher has been sentenced to 2 years in federal prison and fined $10,000 after he was convicted on two felony counts for making a fake bid at a government oil and gas auction. He bid for 14 parcels of land that Bill McKibben has described as "gorgeous." The auction was later ruled illegal by a federal judge. Here are excerpts from DeChristopherís compelling statement to the court before sentencing:
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the court. ...I agree with the founding fathers that juries should be the conscience of the community and a defense against legislative tyranny...
I have also made public statements about the value of civil disobedience in bringing the rule of law closer to our shared sense of justice. In fact, I have openly and explicitly called for nonviolent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal coal mining in my home state of West Virginia.
Mountaintop removal is itself an illegal activity, which has always been in violation of the Clean Water Act, and it is an illegal activity that kills people. A West Virginia state investigation found that Massey Energy had been cited with 62,923 violations of the law in the ten years preceding the disaster that killed 29 people last year. The investigation also revealed that Massey paid for almost none of those violations because the company provided millions of dollars worth of campaign contributions that elected most of the appeals court judges in the state.
When I was growing up in West Virginia, my mother was one of many who pursued every legal avenue for making the coal industry follow the law...to no avail. I actually have great respect for the rule of law, because I see what happens when it doesn't exist, as is the case with the fossil fuel industry.... When a corrupted government is no longer willing to uphold the rule of law, I advocate that citizens step up to that responsibility.
This is really the heart of what this case is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law.
Mr. Huber [prosecuting U.S. attorney] claims that the seriousness of my offense was that I "obstructed lawful government proceedings." But the auction in question was not a lawful proceeding. I know you've heard another case about some of the irregularities for which the auction was overturned.
But that case did not involve the BLM's blatant violation of Secretarial Order 3226, which...required the BLM to weigh the impacts on climate change for all its major decisions, particularly resource development. A federal judge in Montana ruled last year that the BLM was in constant violation of this law throughout the Bush administration. ...no apologist for the government or the BLM has ever even tried to claim that the BLM followed this law...
This law was put into effect to mitigate the impacts of catastrophic climate change and defend a livable future on this planet. This law was about protecting the survival of young generations. That's...a very big deal to me. If the government is going to refuse to step up to that responsibility to defend a livable future, I believe that creates a moral imperative for me and other citizens. My future, and the future of everyone I care about, is being traded for short-term profits. I take that very personally. Until our leaders take seriously their responsibility to pass on a healthy and just world to the next generation, I will continue this fight.
The government [claims] there were legal alternatives to standing in the way of this auction. Particularly, I could have filed a written protest... The government does not mention, however, that...it had become common practice for the BLM to take volunteers from the oil and gas industry to process those permits. The oil industry was paying people specifically to volunteer for the industry that was supposed to be regulating it, and it was to those industry staff that I would have been appealing.
Moreover, this auction [came] just three months after The New York Times reported on a major scandal involving Department of the Interior regulators who were taking bribes of sex and drugs from the oil companies that they were supposed to be regulating. In 2008, this was the condition of the rule of law, for which Mr. Huber says I lacked respect. Just as the legal avenues which people in West Virginia have been pursuing for 30 years, the legal avenues in this case were constructed precisely to protect the corporations who control the government.
The reality is not that I lack respect for the law; it's that I have greater respect for justice. Where there is a conflict between the law and the higher moral code that we all share, my loyalty is to that higher moral code. Mr. Huber...wrote that "The rule of law is the bedrock of our civilized society, not acts of 'civil disobedience' committed in the name of the cause of the day." That's an especially ironic statement when he is representing the U.S. of America, a place where the rule of law was created through acts of civil disobedience.
The authority of the government exists to the degree that the rule of law reflects the higher moral code of the citizens, and throughout American history, it has been civil disobedience that has bound them together.
...The government's...concern is not the danger that I present, but the danger presented by my ideas and words that might lead others to action....The things that I've been publicly saying may indeed be threatening to that power structure.
...[I have been speaking] about empowerment [and] about recognizing our interconnectedness rather than viewing ourselves as isolated individuals. ...Alienation is perhaps the most effective tool of control in America, and every reminder of our real connectedness weakens that tool.
But the sentencing guidelines don't mention the need to protect corporations or politicians... The guidelines say "protect the public." The question is whether the public is helped or harmed by my actions. The easiest way to answer that question is with the direct impacts of my action. As the oil executive stated in his testimony, the parcels I didn't bid on averaged $12 per acre, but the ones I did bid on averaged $125. ...The industry admits very openly that they were getting those parcels for an order of magnitude less than what they were worth....
Most of the parcels I won were later deemed inappropriate for drilling. In other words, the highest and best value to the public for those particular lands was not for oil and gas drilling. Had the auction gone off without a hitch, it would have been a loss for the public. The fact that the auction was delayed, extra attention was brought to the process, and the parcels were ultimately revoked was a good thing for the public.
...Civil disobedience is inherently an attempt at change. Those in power...always see civil disobedience as a bad thing. The decision you are making today, your honor, is what segment of the public you are meant to protect. ...the majority of the public is exploited by the status quo far more than they are benefited by it. The young are the most obvious group who is exploited and condemned to an ugly future by letting the fossil fuel industry call the shots. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific research...that reveals the catastrophic consequences which the young will have to deal with over the coming decades.
But just as real is the exploitation of the communities where fossil fuels are extracted. ...the exploitation of fossil fuels has always gone hand in hand with the exploitation of local people. In West Virginia, we've been extracting coal longer than anyone else. And after 150 years of making other people rich, West Virginia is almost dead last among the states in per capita income, education rates and life expectancy.
And it's not an anomaly. The areas with the richest fossil fuel resources, whether coal in West Virginia and Kentucky, or oil in Louisiana and Mississippi, are the areas with the lowest standards of living. In part, this is a necessity of the industry. The only way to convince someone to blow up their backyard or poison their water is to make sure they are so desperate that they have no other option. But it is also the nature of the economic model. Since fossil fuels are a limited resource, whoever controls access to that resource in the beginning gets to set all the terms. They set the terms for their workers, for the local communities, and apparently even for the regulatory agencies.
A renewable energy economy is a threat to that model. Since no one can control access to the sun or the wind, the wealth is more likely to flow to whoever does the work of harnessing that energy, and therefore to create a more distributed economic system, which leads to a more distributed political system.
...this is a case about the right of citizens to challenge the government. The U.S. Attorneyís office makes clear that their interest is not only to punish me for doing so, but to discourage others from challenging the government, even when the government is acting inappropriately....
Those who...follow my actions understand that we are on a path toward catastrophic consequences of climate change. They know their future, and the future of their loved ones, is on the line. And they know we are running out of time to turn things around. The closer we get to that point where it's too late, the less people have to lose by fighting back.
The people who are committed to fighting for a livable future will not be discouraged or intimidated by anything that happens here today. And neither will I. ...I don't mean that in any sort of disrespectful way at all, but you don'ít have that authority. You have authority over my life, but not my principles. Those are mine alone.
I'm not saying any of this to ask you for mercy, but to ask you to join me. If you...believe that your role is to discourage citizens from holding their government accountable, then you should...lock me away. I certainly don't want that. ...I want you to join me in valuing this country's rich history of nonviolent civil disobedience.
If you share those values but think my tactics are mistaken, you have the power to redirect them. You can sentence me to a wide range of community service....
At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow. The choice you are making today is what side are you on.