Hundreds swarm BLM auction in Lakewood to protest oil, gas drilling

Hundreds of Leave It In The Ground demonstrators demanding a tougher response to climate change swarmed a federal public lands auction Thursday and set up a blockade to try to stop new oil and gas drilling. U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials with police support moved ahead with the auction of rights to drill under 7,000 acres in western Colorado, penetrating the human blockade inside a rented Holiday Inn and enduring theatrics outside including use of bullhorns, loud music and a fog machine. The anti-fossil fuel groups, led by Greenpeace and other environmentalists, also plan another demonstration Saturday in Thornton where hundreds of Front Range residents are expected to protest hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, near neighborhoods and schools...more