Milwaukee Climate Activists Protest Federal Drilling Rights Auction

A federal auction of oil and gas leases on public lands drew about 75 climate change activists in Milwaukee Thursday.

Protesters like Julie Enslow of the group 350 Milwaukee argue the leases encourage the use of carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels. Enslow said she wants President Barack Obama to halt the auctions.

“It would be a big step towards eliminating the crisis of CO2 in our atmosphere that we face with global warming,” she said.

Steven Hall, an agency spokesman with the Bureau of Land Management, which administers the auctions, defended the program: “The Bureau of Land Management is an integral part of meeting the nation’s energy needs,” he said. “There still is a need for natural gas.”

Protesters initially tried to sit in on the sale, but city police officers directed them to a separate room to watch the auction on closed-circuit TV. At one point their chanting nearly drowned out the auctioneer next door.

Activists in other cities have tried to disrupt BLM auctions. At the Milwaukee event, 580 acres of public land were up for lease.