In the waning days of the Bush presidency, an auction of 130,000 acres of pristine Utah lands near national parks was organized by the Bureau of Land Management as a last-minute gift to the oil and gas industry. Tim DeChristopher, “then a 27-year-old economics student at Utah, walked into the auction and signed up as Bidder 70.” DeChristopher successfully bid for $1.7 million in parcels, breaking up the auction. The Bush leasing plan was found in court to be flawed and has been withdrawn, but DeChristopher faces 10 years in jail for his brave act of non-violent civil disobedience. Furthermore, the judge in charge of DeChristopher’s case is stacking the case against him:

A reasonable person would realize that since the government ruled that the auctions were invalid to begin with – Tim clearly prevented a greater crime from happening. And a reasonable person should also see that the dangerous policies of destroying wild lands to continue our addiction to fossil fuels is a far greater crime than anything Tim might have done. But the judge in this case has blocked attempts by Tim’s lawyers to introduce arguments about the dire threats of climate change, and refused to let the jury hear Tim’s motivations and reasons for doing what he did.

DeChristopher been charged with two felonies: making a false statement, and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act. Meanwhile, the Obama administration approved the first offshore drilling permit today since the BP disaster, for which no criminal charges have been filed.

Hundreds of smiling protesters marched from Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Park to Exchange Place across the street from the federal courthouse this morning, wielding “Bidder 70″ placards and chanting “Free Tim, Free Tim!”

My life as a communist actually began without me knowing it, on Friday evening, when Glenn Beck spent his program explaining about a “communistic” conspiracy that included 10 groups in America. One was 350.org, a global campaign to fight climate change that I helped found three years ago. He even put our logo up on his whiteboard – and next to it a hammer and sickle.

Since I don’t actually watch Mr. Beck, I didn’t know about it until e-mails began to arrive, informing me that indeed I was a communist. My first reaction was: I’m not a communist. I’m a Methodist.

But then I reconsidered.

Fellow Eaarthling and sometime CP blogger Bill McKibben offers a light touch in his response to the clown prince of disinformers.  Beck is the guy who told William Shatner, “I think there are too many stupid people.”  Now that’s humor!

Here’s more from McKibben’s new Washington Post column, “My life as a communist“:

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Daniel J. Weiss and Valeri Vasquez in a CAP cross-post.

Political instability in the Middle East over the past month has driven parallel unrest in world oil prices. The drive for political freedom in the Middle East has rightfully captured the world’s attention but it has also roiled oil markets.  Governments across the globe are worried that sustained unrest will escalate oil prices past $100 per barrel on their way to $120 or more, choking the struggling economic recovery in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. One entity, however, is almost certain to benefit from this volatility: Big Oil companies.

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Environmentalists: Wake up! There is a greater and more urgent threat to the climate than even global warming: the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

Uhh, no.

As someone who spent a lot of time working on issues related to the threat posed by nuclear weapons — I was actually a Congressional science fellow two decades ago for a senior member of the House Armed Services committee — I think everyone should be very worried about nuclear weapons.

I even think that the scenario Time‘s Eben Harrell lays out is plausible:

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Fueled by the carbon pollution giant Koch Industries, Tea Party Republicans in New Hampshire are attempting to scuttle the state’s involvement in the region’s successful climate program.  Brad Johnson has the story — and one NH  legislator’s amazing rationale.

Robocalls from Koch’s Americans for Prosperity group flooded the state last weekend in support of a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which has cut greenhouse and other pollution and created 1,130 jobs as a result of energy efficiency benefits. Rep. Sandra Keans (D-Rochester), told the Nashua Telegraph that AFP’s calls were “sleazy” and deliberately false. “I have never seen such a cowardly perpetration pulled on the citizens of New Hampshire,” Keans said.

On Wednesday, the state’s overwhelmingly Republican House of Representatives voted to support HB 519 by a nearly party-line vote of 246 to 104 (13 Republicans voted against, two Democrats for). The bill has to pass through the finance committee before a final house vote and consideration by the senate. Gov. John Lynch (D-NH), who has touted the success of RGGI in making the air healthier while increasing economic prosperity, is expected to veto the bill, but Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature. The bill is being championed by extreme climate deniers:

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Greenland’s glaciers double in speed (with video)

The contribution of Greenland to global sea level change and the mapping of previously unknown basins and mountains beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are highlighted in a new film released by Cambridge University this morning.

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