KJCT8.com - Grand Junction, Montrose - Weather, News, Sports | Utah bidder asserts oil auction was illegal
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Associated Press - October 26, 2009 6:24 PM ET
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Defense lawyers say a college student has a plausible defense for disrupting a federal auction of oil & gas leases last December.
The lawyers filed court papers Monday saying Tim DeChristopher should be able to argue at trial - over government objections - that he was acting to curb climate change.
The lawyers also say DeChristopher believed the administration of former President George W. Bush was rushing to lease public lands around Utah's national parks in violation of environmental laws.
DeChristopher was later indicted on felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction.
DeChristopher says he posed as a bidder last December - and won $1.7 million in leases he didn't pay for - as an act of civil disobedience.
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