Facing prison, activist speaks out

In sandals and an untucked shirt, milling about Town Park, Tim DeChristopher looks pretty relaxed for a guy who’s facing 10 years in prison. He’s here for Mountainfilm, a nice respite before his trial, scheduled for July 6, in which the government charges that he deliberately disrupted an oil and gas lease sale in Salt Lake City on Dec. 19. He pled not guilty last month. Yes, the University of Utah economics student clearly mucked up the auction by winning $1.7 million worth of leases, some of which were near national parks, which he had no intention of drilling on or paying for. But if he and his lawyers — including the former head of the Bureau of Land Management — have their way, DeChristopher’s trial could turn out to be one of the more interesting in the history of the environmental movement. They told the government that they plan to use a “necessity” defense, also called “Choice of Evils,” in which a person chooses one evil in order to prevent another, greater evil. His choice, then, was between causing bureaucratic headaches and living in a world so disrupted that it would become nearly unlivable. The lawyer for the government doesn’t want the trial to take that turn. It wants to limit the argument to what took place between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Dec. 19. U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman recently petitioned the judge to prohibit DeChristopher from making the choice of evils defense. They cite similar cases in which the choice of evils defense was not allowed: when protesters entered a defense plant to protest nuclear missiles; or when a woman climbed the fence of an abortion clinic to try and block a woman from entering. If the judge rules for DeChristopher, the trial could bring up just that burning question: Is climate change a harm that may or may not occur? Or is it like a fire ripping trough a building? Is it like a violent storm?...Telluride Daily Planet