Tim DeChristopher is Bidder 70, a young man who derailed an illegal BLM oil and gas auction in a courageous act of civil disobedience.

The story of Tim DeChristopher, a young man who disrupted a controversial BLM Oil and Gas leasing auction in 2008. He posed as a bidder (#70) and bid $1.7 million to win 22,000 acres of land he had no intention of paying for (or drilling on). Tim was federally indicted, convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for his courageous act of civil disobedience. Bidder 70 is a personal story surrounded by a wider context of citizen action, our history of peaceful civil disobedience, and grass roots movements demanding government and industry accountability.—Anonymous

On December 19, 2008, student environmentalist, Tim DeChristopher, aka "Bidder 70", monkey-wrenched President Bush's last-minute, fraudulent BLM Oil and Gas Lease Auction. Bidding 1.7 million dollars for 22,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness surrounding Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, with no intention to pay or drill, Tim brought the BLM auction to an abrupt halt. A month later, Barack Obama became president and on February 4, 2009, his new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, invalidated that entire Bureau of Land Management Auction. Nevertheless, DeChristopher was indicted on two federal felonies facing penalties of up to ten years in prison and $750,000 in fines. For the next two years, DeChristopher stepped up his activism, evolved into a climate justice leader, and waited through nine trial postponements for his February 28, 2011 trial to begin.—Gage & Gage