Comments about ‘Fake bidder should stop using oil, gas’

DeChristopher's one-day protest was more creative and meaningful than Benson's entire body of predictable work. What's more, this country would have been better off the past eight years with more like DeChristopher and less Benson. Remember, civil disobedience has won:

-Women's right to vote
-Civil Rights for African-Americans
-The end of the Vietnam War

Meanwhile, unchecked rapacious capitalism has brought us:

-Wars for oil and the monkey-wrenching of alternative fuel technologies and infrastructures
-Global climate change
-Multi-trillion $ Wall Street bailouts

This was a feckless column, even by Benson's standards.

Feel better now that you blew off some steam? You may not agree with DeChristopher's politics but we should all be happy that he helped get the best price for Utah's finite mineral resource.

Once Utah's minerals are gone... that's all folks.

The prices for extractive mineral products are set by market demand, not the cost of extraction. If the mining and gas people are willing to pay more for those leases then its the taxpayers of Utah who have been getting ripped off.

DeChristopher is a champion for the Utah taxpayers!

This guy should be made to pay for the bids that he won. What he did was to ignore the laws of the land. His extreme environmental buddies will bail him out anyway, let them spend some of their money to defend this wacko point of view. When you really read what he said: "What I did was significant, but it won't change the world," DeChristopher said. "But for now he is looking forward to spending the holidays with his family in Colorado." "I have the opportunity to get my message out there, and I will take advantage of every opportunity," How can we as a law abiding public do anything but call for the payment for the leases and follow the development of the lease or serve the jail time with the penalties that go with it. This type of extreme environmentalist does harm the average citizen. I would dare say that he has never set foot in the Uintah Basin to see where the drilling is taking place. Nor has he studied the laws and rules that he agreed to by bidding and winning the lease sales that he did. Prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

So one cannot expect to have both energy and clean environment. If I use electricity, I can only expect to breathe dirty air? Okay.

What a stupid column, Benson. Tell you what. Let's use your so loopy logic in another instance.

If you consider yourself a good Christian, you should go all the way, dude. Sell everything you own, and I mean everything, and donate it all to charity. Then devote all your time to helping others instead of writing trash like this. Then, and only then, will you be a good Christian.

See how easy that was?

Lee, This is the BEST column you have ever written. It's amazing how mad these people get when you point out the hypocrisy! These people whine and cry, but are unwilling to go without the modern conveniences that they claim are so destructive.

Lee,

A person can't look into the future and hope for something better? Because Manhatten Island is covered by concrete and asphalt, drilling near Arches is justified? Some logic.

You take DeChristopher to task for being a hypocrite. But who isn't? We're all sinners, Lee. I doubt DeChristopher would deny he is an energy user. But I also doubt he would argue, as you have, that because we all use energy the unbridled development of non-renewable energy resources is justified.

Spot On Lee! It's about time someone pointed out the holes in the story.

Just like our friend, Sundance, the last one to build then forbids the rest from moving in and calls it progress...

DRILL BABY DRILL !

wow
Do people like you still exist?
of course you do...
by the way you do know that oil is over?
look around..
oh! and old cop.....thats what you are ...old.
sorry.

great column Lee. I also just love the selfish, hypocritical anti-everything crowd who want everyone to live in grass huts.

like to coddle criminals if it fits their politics but love the law if it could make political prisoners of conservatives and trying to shut up free speech through laws like the fairness doctrine which they want enforced with no disobeience.
Selective patriotism

Matter of fact, "People like Anonymous", I would respect a conservative who broke the law as a gesture of non-violent protest, because it demonstrates that they are willing to sacrifice for what they believe in. For example, I have the utmost respect for fundamentalist Christian pastors across the nation who, at the risk of losing tax-exempt status for their churches, have in solidarity begun to give overtly partisan sermons to challenge government encumbrance on their free speech rights. I don't necessarily agree with them, but I applaud their resistance wholeheartedly. I believe the people of this country have gone along to get along for too long, and to our detriment. I believe the outrage expressed at Mr. DeChristopher would be better directed at the corporate raiders on Wall Street who've bamboozled the rest of us out of trillions of dollars. Alas, he'll probably do more time than the executives at Lehman Bros., AIG, Fannie and Freddie, City Bank, etc. etc. combined.

ITS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT A COUPLE OF BIDDERS ARE IN THE PROCESS OF FILING A SUIT AGAINST TIM FOR DAMAGES.....IF HE THOUGHT $1.4 MILLION WAS ALOT, WAIT TIL HE HEARS THE PUNITIVE AWARD FROM THE JURY!

The best column you've ever written. You do a great job of pointing out what a hypocrite this guy is. Now if we can just get some justice by seeing him behind bars, where the only thing he'll be protesting is sharing a cell with the executives from Enron.

I hope Tim thinks it was worth it when he has judgements against his paychecks for the rest of his life. When that happens he won't even be able to afford a tank of gas. Oops, forgot, he's anti gas. He must peddle his bike everywhere.

You were better as a sports writer, back in the day....

I believe his efforts are in vain. The U.S. is and always will be relying on oil and gas in one way or another. The drilling will continue until the resevoirs are depleted and then it'll begin in another new discovery area. Get over it people, there will always be drilling in the U.S. whether you like it or not, and it's a great living for those of us who work in the industry.

i have an electric car my diesels run on waste veg oil. i applaud tim's clever tactic to counter Bushes last minute land grab for his cronies. We are all in this together but only the politically connected who care nothing for the unspoiled natural beauty of our wilderness are going to profit, literally! We can break our unsustainable addiction to fossil energy and rebuild our economy, regain our self determination and undo the destructive cycles of depletion to which we all have been habituated. Imagine, leaving a cleaner, stronger more beautiful planet to our children rather than having to apologize for the bleak empty and filthy husk of what was entrusted to our race. Stewardship means nurturing and cultivating not decimating and exploiting. Agree or disagree with his tactics but we all benefit from his actions. Dare to try something different!

My primary problem with environmentalists are that they are incredibly selfish. They don't care about anyone or anything other than getting what they want. They won't listen to another's point of view, be rational, compromise, etc. The only thing that's important to them is telling the rest of us how uneducated and uninformed we are and will do and say anything to get there way.

There HAS to be compromise. I'm not one who agrees that oil rigs should dot the land, but to completely stop drilling oil is absurd. I also feel that there has to be a balance of those who use the land (farmers, ranchers) for their lively hood and for recreationalists to co-exist. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the USA (southeastern Utah). A good example of compromise has been with the Nature Conservancy who has allowed the continuing grazing of land owned by them near Indian Creek. They have also invested in protecting valuable naturally beautiful areas as well. However, this attitude among environmentalists is rare based on my experience.

While I do not share the extent to Mr. DeChristopher's convictions, I do believe in protecting our surroundings. I believe that this will come with the additional cost and sacrifice of many of todays convieniences. Paying this price, to preserve a better tomorrow, is well worth the cost. At this point, Mr. DeChristopher now has to pay the price for his actions. Any one who has read Thoreau understands that in order for an act to truely be an example of "Civil Disobedience" the consequences for the act must paid. Thoreau spent nights in a cell, Mr. DeChristopher is going to have the opprotunity to do much of the same. Any efforts made by DeChristopher to avoid the consequences of his actions, would cheapen his stance.