Castle Valley, Utah — MY husband, Brooke Williams, and I recently bought leasing rights to 1,120 acres of federal public lands near our home in Utah. The lease gives us the right to drill for oil or natural gas. We paid $1,680 for it, plus a $820 processing fee.

We put it on our credit card.

I hadn’t planned on leasing these lands when I attended an auction run by the federal Bureau of Land Management, a government agency that manages hundreds of millions of acres of public land across the West. I was there to protest the leasing of these lands to oil and gas companies planning to drill for fossil fuels.

But I ended up in the shorter line to get into the auction, the one for people registering as bidders. So I signed a registration form and was given the number 19. I followed the other bidders inside and found a seat in the front row.

My husband entered with the protesters, who were assigned to a separate space set aside for them.

As people filed in, a B.L.M. agent approached me and asked, “Are you aware that if you have misrepresented yourself as a legitimate bidder with an energy company you will be prosecuted and you could go to prison?”

His tone moved from inquiry to intimidation to harassment. “I am asking you, are you aware … ”

I said I was aware of what happened to Tim DeChristopher, who attended a similar auction in 2008, where he bid up prices and ended up with 22,000 acres, worth nearly $1.8 million that he had no intention of paying for. He was doing it to protest the auction. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison on felony counts of interfering with the auction and making false representations.

“As an American citizen,” I told the agent, “I have a right to be here and witness this auction and decide if I am going to bid or not on these leases on our public lands, correct?”

“I am saying, if you choose to misrepresent yourself … ”

“But I have this right … ”

“What energy do you plan to develop?”

“You can’t define energy for us. Our energy development is fueling a movement to keep it in the ground.”

“You will be prosecuted if … ”

We were interrupted as the auction began. Parcel after parcel was sold to the rhythmic bantering of the auctioneer until voices in the back of the room began singing, “People got to rise like water … ”

The singing became louder and louder until the bidders could no longer hear the auctioneer. The auction stopped. The protesters were told to be quiet. They kept singing. They were asked again. They sat down. The auction continued.

“Two dollars, two dollars, do I hear 2.25, I hear 2.25, 2.50, 3, 4, 5, are you in, are you out, do I hear 5, I hear 5, do I hear 6, 6 dollars, do I hear 7, 7. Sold! Bidder No. 14. ”

And so it went.

Then the protesters began to sing again. This time, they were escorted out by the police. They offered up words of protest as they departed, ending with “Keep it in the ground!”

The doors were closed. The auction continued as the singing of protesters echoed from the stairwell.

“Come on, men, are you in, are you out, or are you stayin’ home — this is a lot of scenery going to waste,” the auctioneer joked when no one bid on a parcel.

As the auction closed, we were told that if we wished to lease parcels that had not been sold, we could go to the B.L.M. office and purchase them “over the counter” at a discounted price. Call it a fire sale.

Which is exactly what my husband and I did. We were interested in buying leases within the county where we live specifically, on land where oil and gas exploration might threaten sage grouse, prairie dogs and other wildlife. We met the qualification: We’re adult citizens of the United States.

With maps stretched out before us, we found what we were looking for. The $2-per-acre base price had been reduced to $1.50. We took out our credit card, and sealed the deal. The land sits adjacent to a proposed wilderness area. When we visited, we were struck by its hard-edge beauty and castle-like topography.

We have every intention of complying with the law, even as we challenge it. To establish overselves as a legitimate energy company, we have formed Tempest Exploration Company, LLC. We will pay the annual rent for the duration of the 10-year lease and keep whatever oil and gas lies beneath these lands in the ground.

Those resources will remain there until science finds a way to use those fossil fuels in sustainable, nonpolluting ways. After 10 years, we will lose our lease if we haven’t drilled.

We’re not suggesting that everyone who feels as we do about the exploitation of our public lands should do what we did. We aren’t going to be able to buy our way out of this problem. Our purchase was more or less spontaneous, done with a coyote’s grin, to shine a light on the auctioning away of America’s public lands to extract the very fossil fuels that are warming our planet and pushing us toward climate disaster.

Out here in the Utah desert, we are hoping to tap into the energy that is powering the movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Some 32 million acres of lands managed by B.L.M. have already been leased to energy companies to drill for oil and gas, even as some climate scientists tell us the world needs to keep most fossil fuels in the ground to avert a catastrophic future of runaway global warming.

The energy we hope to produce through Tempest Exploration is not the kind that will destroy our planet, but the kind that will fuel moral imagination. We need to harness this spiritual and political energy to sustain the planet we call home.