The most celebrated monkeywrencher of his generation was found guilty of two felonies today in federal court in Salt Lake City. In December 2008, Tim DeChristopher bid on and won licenses for oil and gas parcels at a Bureau of Land Management auction, licenses for which he had no intention of paying, to bring attention to the need to tackle climate change. Neither the judge, prosecutors, nor the jury were swayed by his arguments, and DeChristopher was convicted after five hours of deliberation.

“When a person breaks the law, there are consequences,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber said. “He crossed the boundaries when he left the lawful protest [outside the BLM auction] to go inside and do what he did. … He chose a path of illegality and criminal conduct.”

DeChristopher’s lawyer, Ron Yengich, said, “The government skips over the critical context here, which is that we’re dealing with a very young man who did have a fervor and a zeal for the environmental movement.”

To his credit, DeChristopher hasn’t shied away from the potential penalties, saying repeatedly that he expects and is prepared to spend time in prison. He faces up to 10 years and $750,000 in fines. Some have argued, however, that the extraordinary issues surrounding climate change demand extraordinary actions, and that DeChristopher should be given a slap on the wrist. With that in mind…

Tagged as: climate change, environment