A Scandal Greater Than Watergate?

 Excerpt from Lindsey Williams book The Energy Non Crisis

What kind of scandal would be greater than Watergate? Today it has appeared on the scene, and its ultimate objective is to get Americans to agree to—in fact, to request-socialization. Why have oil prices gone so high? I have never heard anyone reveal the true reasons before. I wondered if they would allow me to tell them ... but it's high time someone did, so I am going to! Remember Shylock and his pound of flesh? Well, this is close! Can you imagine what the interest would be on $12 billion?—even at the best prime rates? Let's even deduct the $2 billion the pipeline was supposed to cost once it got going. Let's just call it a nice round $10 billion in cost overruns. One company, in order to pay their proportionate share, had to borrow an amount equal to the entire net worth of the company ... to literally mortgage the whole company, as it were. Can you just imagine the interest on all that? Such staggering sums are mind boggling—and generally we tend to associate them with nothing smaller than the "National Debt." Perhaps you have read statements by the oil companies telling us that their "declared" profits don't really give the true picture. Even such articles as those in Reader's Digest don't reveal the whole story. Oil companies are not allowed to include those exorbitant interest charges as deductions from profits, which for you and me would be the usual procedure. Remember the atrocious prime interest rates that we face today? Well, work it out! What would be the interest on $10 billion? Now, mentally deduct those staggering figures from the highly-publicized "declared" profits ... then you tell me who is really the villain! Certainly not the oil companies! Then there is the matter of that tax on "Windfall Profits" that the oil companies make. That is yet another ploy to weaken them. We hear a lot about windfall profits, but how much publicity has been given to their huge interest charges?—virtually none, if any at all. By this time you are probably way ahead of me ... in fact, I'll bet you've already guessed who is going to pay that high interest? Apart from the oil companies themselves, there is only one person who can pay for it today—you, me, the consumer, John Doe! The red blooded American is going to pick up the tab for that exorbitant interest—every time he drives up to the gas pump. The one who believes in free enterprise is the one who will pay for that interest—John Doe, who stands for the principles on which our forefathers founded this country, one of which is incentive, not socialism. (Or, if you prefer, you could nationalize the oil companies and pay instead for the government bureaucracy—but then we've already seen how well that works!) Throughout this writing so far, I have attempted to give only actual observations, and I have deliberately withheld my personal opinions as much as possible. However, I am sure you will recognize that in Watergate it was necessary to read between the lines. Likewise, in the scandal that is greater than Watergate, you must again read between the lines. This scandal not only touches the government, but it touches every minute area of every American's life—for that's the name of the game with something as crucial as energy. Let's do a little imaginative "supposing" now. If I were a government that seemed to have socialistic trends, and apparently wanted to control the lives of every single individual living in this nation, I would first need to control energy. An excellent way to gain this control would be to cause the American people to think that prices were going so high simply because the oil companies were making exorbitant profits (or perhaps better yet, make it look like there is a shortage because they are inefficient, etc.). Of course, you would fail to mention that not all the expenses are deducted before the "profits" are "declared" (as is customary in other business reporting), because if they (the consumers) become adequately disturbed about the "rip-off," they will probably even demand that these vital services be nationalized for everyone's best interests. Since it is now too late to stop the flow of oil, the scheme has switched to getting the American people to believe that the oil companies are amassing great fortunes from the North Slope oil, therefore, they shouldn't need to raise the prices. Reading between the lines? After all, the government has never told us what the interest would be on $10 billion, not to mention the "small matter" of the repayment of the $10 billion principal itself, just to pay off the cost overruns forced on the oil companies by the Federal and State governments. I would hate to pay the bill—but I am paying it ... and so are you! The prices at the gas pumps are going up, and up, and up (in spite of regional temporary declines). We will eventually become so disgruntled with the oil companies that we will actually request the Federal government to take them over and nationalize them? So now the push is no longer to stop the flow of the oil—it's a little late for that, for the oil is already flowing from one of the greatest oil fields in the world. So... today the move is price increases—regulations—cut backs—energy control" Conserve. The world is running out." Why is fuel approximately $1.50 a gallon (as this manuscript is being written)? I'll tell you why. It is because you have to pay the interest on $10 billion, in addition to paying back the principal. And don't forget those who have placed themselves—in charge of "over"-protecting our environment, along with the many added costs they bring ... much of which is totally unnecessary! Today, as long as inflation continues its upward spiral, the Federal government makes more and more money from every John Doe American, because as your wages go up, so does the government's share. By the same token, the tax structure makes Uncle Sam even richer, because they are not revising the tax structure accordingly as fast as the inflation is escalating. As inflation continues to spiral (and your salary does not go up as fast as that spiral), America gets deeper and deeper into debt and ever more dependent on the rest of the world. (One of the solutions, of course, is greater [American] production at lesser cost.) At the same time, the very ones who are the champions of free enterprise (industry) are stymied because they are not allowed to produce. Industry is struggling to survive because the thumb of "big daddy" government is crushing it every day it continues to exist. In the year 1973, we experienced the first real so-called energy crisis per se. By the way, have you ever noticed that each of these energy crises have affected only one portion of the country at a time? In 1973 it was only the East Coast (the northern part, in particular). There was no crisis in the West. There was no crisis in the Midwest. There was no crisis in the South. Why the Northeast? Because, you see, that was the first testing ground to find out how far the government could take gullible Americans. Then about the time folks were ready to revolt, suddenly there was no longer a crisis in the Northeast. All of a sudden, out of a clear blue sky, for no known reason, it ceased to exist ... all the gas you wanted! Next, if you remember, it was California. The lines had disappeared in the Northeast. Then they thought, "We'll try the farming section of the country." However, that one did not get too much publicity, so that "crisis" didn't last too long. It seemed strange to me that I was told by oil company officials a number of months in advance where the next "crisis" would occur. One section after another of America has been tried, to see just how far they could be pushed before they rebel. Then, at the point of rebellion, the government backs off. All of a sudden there is no energy crisis in that area anymore. How about the natural gas crisis? Do you remember everyone was screaming about it in 1974, and all across the country people were going cold in their homes because of the so-called shortage of natural gas? Then once more—somehow—out of a clear blue sky, there's plenty of natural gas Why? Because there never was a shortage—the shortage simply never existed. It was "created" for the express purpose of finding out just how far you and I could be pushed before we rebel. Then, quite recently (only a few weeks ago as I write), something else quite startling happened. I was talking with a certain gentleman in the Midwest who lives near Estes Park in the center of Colorado (that is one of the largest parks in the Midwest). This man said to me, "I live near Estes Park. My home is only a short distance away from that area, and I have noticed that up in the forest area of Estes Park there are some odd looking structures that are somehow being hauled in by huge helicopters, and they have been drilling in the national forest." He continued, "I wondered about that—after all this was supposed to be a closed area, but they were drilling and then they would move. There are a number of big drills and that rig in there—they were somewhat camouflaged so that nobody would recognize them, but since I live right near Estes Park, I could not help but realize that something was going on. I kept noticing the big helicopters moving this big equipment in. As well as that, some of the workmen lived right around me, and day after day they were driving in and out, and there was drilling for oil going on, right there in the park itself." The man's story was becoming interesting. He went on, "You see, I am also a fire fighter, and it is my job, when a fire develops in the Estes National Park area, to go in and help them stop that fire. We have been extensively trained for working in our area, and we know every part of those mountains-and exactly how to fight a fire in them. Last Summer, sure enough (as often happens in the summer time) a fire developed in the Estes Park forest area. The fire fighters were called out by the local officials, and everybody gathered together ready to fight the fire." Then he said to me, "Chaplain Lindsey, we will never understand why, but the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] came in and said, 'cancel the fire fight. We at the BLM will take care of it. We'll handle this one ourselves.' Our local officials said, 'But you're not trained for it. You do not have the manpower. We have men trained and they're supposed to do it." However, the BLM said very emphatically, 'No one will go into that forest area.' " The man went on to say, "Chaplain Lindsey, they did not go in. And they let it burn. They attempted to contain parts of it, but parts of it they could not. It burned a vast area, but we were not allowed to go in and fight it. Afterwards, it turned out that many of the rigs had been burned, but they started all over again. They're all very secretive about that—why would they not let us know what was going on in that area?" This is why: The man told me that he had probed very thoroughly into it and had learned that they had made a very sizable oil find. The government itself had authorized most of the drilling, but after they found it, they capped it. They said, "It will not be produced." This same thing can be multiplied in Wyoming and in other oil-productive areas all over the country. The companies have been ordered not to produce. The finds are there. They know the oil wells are there. Recently, I talked to a certain group on this subject. Afterward, a gentleman came to me. He said, "Chaplain, it is my job to go around to the different areas of Wyoming. I check the level of the big oil tanks and the oil that is being pumped out of the ground. I've been working at this job for a number of years." He then related the following story. He named things that had happened a number of years ago, but I have withheld details and particulars that could lead to the identification of this man or his area. He said, "Some years ago we were producing X number of gallons, but in 1974 they cut back the number of actual pumping actions that our pumps make every 24 hours. That is to say, that a pump that was making X number of pumps 5 years ago, today is making only a portion of that number of pumps. They had slowed the pumps down." I said, "Why sir? We're supposed to be in an energy crisis?" He answered, "I've asked myself that many times. The same field used to produce X number of gallons, and it still has the same number of pumps and everything is working like it used to, but now they've cut back on the pumping action of those pumps. Today it takes many more days to pump the same number of gallons from the identical field—it is the same field they've been pumping for years." So there appears to be an intentional cutback in the production of the oil fields of this part of Wyoming. Why? I could go on and on and on. As I travel across America lecturing, I meet people all the time. I have many speaking engagements in churches, business and civic organizations, and that story can be multiplied and multiplied. It certainly does appear that there was a greater scandal than Watergate. Why? I am convinced that there is a definite reason, and at this point I move from observations to personal opinion. There is only one thing on earth by which every human being can be controlled, if that product itself is controlled. That product is energy. The world today has become dependent on energy—for its homes, its lights, its fuel, its automobiles, its airplanes, its trucking industry, its railroads, its delivery of goods, etc. Electricity is produced by the energy of today. Every facet and aspect of our lives can be controlled when energy is controlled. There is no other product on the face of the earth that can so control the American people—and all the people of the world. Whoever controls the energy ... controls us! The fact is, if energy can be controlled, you can be controlled. It could not be done by money, for methods of bartering could be developed by the people. If your energy is controlled, however, then "Big Brother" can control how you live in your home; when you go and where you go; the products you buy; the style of life that you will live; even the level of life at which you will live. They can control your state of life and your every movement. In the days of the horse and buggy, this would not have been so, but today we are dependent entirely on energy. Therefore, because of our complete dependence, we have become ready targets. Now, if they can brainwash the people into believing that there is a true energy crisis, when there actually is not, then they can slow down our society, they can destroy our free enterprise way of life, and they can control every area of our being. It certainly points ultimately to one-world control ... and to an evil dictatorship. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Where does it all begin? It all begins with those in high places who are willing to control you and me. Money is not the question in the energy crisis today (even though it may be hard to believe while we shell out so much for energy). The price of gas at the fuel pump and the price of fuel oil that goes into your home for heating (or gas or electricity)—those are not the real factors. Price is not what they're after, even though they would like you to believe that it is. The motivating force today is control, power, manipulation, the ability to regulate every area of life in such a way that you can be brought completely under the domination of the system and, in turn, those who manipulate that system. At one time I, too, believed the oil companies were the "bad guys," until I saw the oil companies struggling for their very existence. One time I, too, thought that the government was "of the people,' by the people, for the people." There are a few in government who still live by that creed, and I hope that one result of writing this book will be that others will return to that point of view. (If they don't we need to let them know that after the next election they will be out job hunting!) However, it is undoubtedly true that the great motivating concepts today are power and control (which are almost synonymous)—and surely by now you must see that this is not only in relation to energy, but it applies in other areas of life, as well. So what is the conclusion? It is rather startling, isn't it? It is the conclusion I came to after a number of years of examining the facts and putting pieces together. We are being sold down the river and we'd better put a stop to it before it's too late. As Mr. X said to me at Prudhoe Bay some years ago, "There is no energy crisis. There has never been an energy crisis. There will never be an energy crisis, but rather it is the purpose of the 'powers that be' to produce an energy crisis. Because, you see, Chaplain, there is as much crude oil on the North Slope of Alaska as in all of Saudi Arabia. [Not to mention all the rest of the places they have discovered oil and just capped it off!] If free enterprise were allowed to produce that oil, America could be independent for energy within five years time." "Not only that," Mr. X related, "The United States could be financially free of the rest of the world within five years, if only private enterprise were allowed to develop natural resources—the energy ... crude oil and natural gas—that are found on the North Slope of Alaska today." Do they really want us to be free of the rest of the world, or is it total control they are aiming for? The answer has become increasingly obvious and the pace has accelerated. Soon our current inflation rate of 18% will seem trivial. Your money will be worthless. You will, in fact, be controlled by a computer, which, in turn, is controlled by a dictator who will manipulate those under his control like robots. (The truth is that because of the convenience of all those sophisticated new systems, we are even now being lulled into complacency about retaining control over our own activities, in the area of banking and other financial transactions in particular, i.e., automatic deposit of your paycheck, automatic disbursements from your account, automatic grocery checkouts [by little lines on the packages], "telephone" bill-paying, automated 24-hour "teller" [a nice word for a machine], et al. We are being very subtly programmed to do business with machines [computers] instead of people.) The dictator will bring men and women into willing subjection by his favors, e.g., homes, finances, jobs, etc. All the time they themselves are—like flies—being drawn into his worldwide web of intrigue. Stop it! Stand up and be counted! Soon it will be too late. John Doe Citizen, himself, must take action—NOW!

One Law for the Rich, Another for the Poor

 Excerpt from Lindsey Williams book The Energy Non Crisis

We've talked about the two-million dollar falcon's nest, and the $10,000 outhouses. There were many other similar incidents—they can be multiplied, and taken together, they involved a huge sum of money. Another method to add to the price of the pipeline, and again to the price that you the individual will pay at the gas pump, was the almost incredible use of fines. On one occasion a vehicle with sightseers on board ran off the road to let a truck go by. No damage was done —there was nothing off the road, just the tundra. Remember that it would take an ax to break through that tundra. Nevertheless, there was a fine of $10,000 levied because that vehicle ran off the road. Of course, it was not the sightseers that got fined, but the ARCO company. People living in the lower 48 will find it hard to believe that such practices continued, but they surely did. Another case was where a pickup truck drove into the river to turn around. A security guard had locked the gate, and so this was the way that the driver solved his own problem. Again the ARCO company got fined $10,000 for not making an adequate turn around. They hurt nothing driving their vehicle into the river, and it is really impossible to figure out why they should have been fined—but fined they were. The amounts of these fines were announced in the paper very often, and there would be a small write-up. It didn't make big news, for the policy seemed to be to keep these matters in low key. It is ultimately the poor guy who buys gas for his automobile that pays those fines of $10,000 and more—for the most trivial offenses against the huge number of regulations to which the oil companies were subjected. Not only were there very heavy fines, but also they dragged the work out. One section of road was supposed to be a five week project, but because of government meddling, it was about 3 months before it was finished. The government tinkered with the administration, fined the company, and stopped them in all sorts of ways. They told them what they could and could not do, when they could work and when they could not. At one time there were 22 government monitors working on that one section of road. They came from such departments as the Department of the Interior, the Department of Fisheries and Game, and the U.S. Geographic Coastal Survey. Most of them were Federal workers, but some were State workers also. Those 22 workers were running around surveying the same stretch of road at the same time, day after day. While that stretch of road was being built, some 18 fines were levied—in a three month period. Every one of those fines was for at least $10,000. The company that had the contract for that stretch of road ran over their estimated budget by about $5,000,000. The cost overrun almost broke them, and the ARCO company had to come back and reimburse them to keep them from going bankrupt. There was no doubt that by the strict enforcement of often ridiculous and excessive regulations, the attempt was being made to bankrupt all the oil companies. Often regulations were changed; a good example of that was when the rules for going on the tundra were altered. It used to be that you could not go on the tundra unless there had been 30 days of consecutive freeze and a specified amount of snow. Then the authorities would issue a permit, and you could go anywhere you liked on the tundra—after all, you cannot hurt it. Then the regulations were changed to make it so that you could not go on the tundra for any reason without a permit. Anytime you wanted to go on the tundra you had to have a specific permit registered with the State—and it would take weeks to get one. Of course, people had to be paid to process those permits. This new regulation was considered by many people to be absurd, for there were all too many occasions that it was necessary to go on the tundra in the normal course of events—to check out a marker, or to repair a light pole, or for many other legitimate reasons. The tundra is not easily scored or damaged. You could drive all over it right through the winter and never see where you had driven. You need an ax to break it up, yet the authorities made it essential to get these permits. They were State people because the land is State-owned, not owned by the Federal government. The same controls extended even to the dumps associated with the camps. One oil company executive told me that there were three State ecologists monitoring the dump where he worked. They lived at Attwood, and there were three of them employed, with no other work than the monitoring of that dump. At that place there is the only certified landfill in the North Slope! One day these three monitors came to the dump, and someone had dumped some spoiled weiner packs—hot dogs—and of course hot dogs are supposed to be buried. On this occasion for some reason the garbage man had mixed up one of his bags and got the whole bag of spoiled hot dogs and dumped them on the dump These three people found the hot dogs, and they fined the company $10,000 for throwing hot dogs away. Their argument was that food should not be thrown on the dump because it would attract bears. The fact was that this was a legitimate mistake, for the company operated its incinerator and a man was paid to burn all that stuff. He just did not get it done that particular day, and so the company was fined $10,000. The same company executive, who indignantly told me about the hot dogs, also pointed out that it was not permitted to salvage anything from the dumps. Often it would cost large sums of money to freight iron, copper, and brass to the site, but it was then buried at the dump. Nothing could be moved out, even if it was urgently required, e.g., for repair purposes. When the fines were levied, there was little the offending parties could do about it. The fines were levied, and the amounts were learned 2 or 3 months after the incident. There is an old saying, "One rule for the rich and another for the poor." It certainly was true that there was one way to apply these regulations to the employees of the oil companies and another way when it came to the State employees. We've just said that the company was fined for allowing a bag of hot dogs to accidentally be thrown on the dump because it might attract the bears. Yet some of their own employees did worse things with food lying around, and it did, in fact, attract bears. Then those employees shot the bears, and nothing was done! No action was taken against them ... not even a fine! The oil company people were not allowed to participate in hunting or fishing: they were fired if they got caught. A different set of rules applied to the State employees. Here is another example—ARCO transferred to the State of Alaska the Dead Horse airstrip and camp. The camp itself was sold, but the airstrip was not, it being a gift. The company had put millions of dollars into that airstrip, and it was in fact the finest airstrip in the State. Those who know the facts would agree with that assessment, and would also agree that the airstrip has not been maintained properly since then. The State authorities sent a tower man to live up there, and he was allowed to keep his wife there. The radio man maintained the radio and there was a mechanic to maintain the equipment. Maybe there were others also—they certainly had a Fisheries and Game man there. A team of people came to that airstrip, and they would just throw the garbage out their back doors, which was something the oil company employees were not allowed to do. They had to incinerate all their rubbish at all times. So it was that the bears got to eating on the back porch where these State officials would throw their garbage, and then the officials themselves killed the bears and flayed their hides off. That was in Prudhoe Bay, and it is widely known that they did what I am saying. The company's environmentalist wrote to the State authorities about it, but to no avail. Those people killed every bear in Prudhoe Bay: there's not a bear to be seen in the oil fields there now. These "outsiders" brought their guns in, shot them, tagged them, and hauled them out. By "tagging" we mean that they were supposedly legally shot, a hunting fee having been paid. Even that was something that was not legal for the oil company employees to do. Those bears were actually pets of the oil field, and they were ruthlessly shot by these employees of the State. There were about 7 bears that lived more or less as pets around the oil fields —7 Plains Grizzly bears, these being a rare breed Grizzly bear. They are a little smaller than the Kodiak Grizzly, with bigger heads and wider. They grow to about 9 or 10 feet, instead of 11 feet which is common with the Kodiak bears. Bears were commonly seen around the camp. They would go back into the mountains and hide there in the winter months, but they would come down every summer and live in the fields around Prudhoe Bay—until the State people killed them. There was one mother bear with her three cubs living around one of the camps. Nobody had any problem with her-she was regarded as a pet. Another mother and her cub did cause some trouble, and they were put in a helicopter and carried about 150 miles away and unloaded, but they were back in their original camp area two days later. Would you believe it, the company actually got fined for taking that bear and her cub in the helicopter and removing them! Yet State employees killed bears and no action was taken against them. Things were very different with these State people. They actually killed the cubs, as well as the adult bears, and this was common knowledge. Though the oil company environmentalists reported it, even getting one of the security guards as a witness, no action was ever taken on this entire matter. The State people concerned did not have to stay long in the area. The tower man could only stay there one year, but then he could go somewhere else, such as Anchorage, Fairbanks, or even to the State of Hawaii. As we stated above, there is a saying, "There is one law for the rich and another for the poor." At Prudhoe it was quite obvious that there was one law for the oil companies and another for the State.

The Plan to Nationalize the Oil Companies

Excerpt from Lindsey Williams book The Energy Non Crisis


It was 1976. I well remember that day when I walked into the office of Mr. X, and I remarked, "Sir, I sure have been having a good time lately rubbing shoulders with rich people. There's no need for me to travel around the world ... I can meet them all right here in Prudhoe Bay. I'm the only Chaplain around," and I chuckled, "I'm the only Chaplain that can tell people that are Moslems that Jesus Christ loved them and died for them. It's been a real privilege to tell these people that Christ died for sinners whether they come from Moslem countries, from the lower 48, or anywhere else. It's been interesting to tell them the Christian Gospel They would not come to my church service, but they still heard the fact that salvation is available to each of them individually, if they will accept the Savior whom I love and serve."

Mr. X looked at me, interested, and perhaps a little surprised that I was able to present the Gospel in that way. However, he knew me, and had come to respect me. He knew it would be quite impossible for me to meet people and not give them the "Good News" if there was half an opportunity to do so.

Mr. X himself was involved in a wonderful work—the provision of oil to a needy world. I was involved in an even more important mission—to tell of the Light of the World Who had come, to tell how the Old Testament Scriptures had foretold His death, to relate the wonderful news that despite the wickedness of man, God's plan of salvation had been wonderfully foretold. And, of course, it was my joy to tell them that I personally knew forgiveness of sins, peace with God, enjoyment of the best life, because I knew the reality of walking with the risen Christ.

I told Mr. X that it had been my privilege to tell those bankers from various parts of the world that for me to live was Christ, "to die was gain," as the apostle Paul put it. I suppose those businessmen simply tolerated my point of view, but it was a real privilege to notice that they accepted me and respected my point of view. Sometimes they even listened very seriously to the wonderful news I had for them. After all, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest news ever given to man.

I remember that Mr. X kind of laughed as he listened to me, and then he commented, "Well, Chaplain, where else could you get an audience like that—where else could you go in all the world to get people to listen to the gospel message in the way you presented it to these men?"

I said to him, "Sir, thank you for making it all possible. I really appreciate you letting me rub shoulders with these guys." Then I said to him, "By the way, Mr. X, why is it that all these men are up here at Prudhoe Bay all of a sudden? I used to see men like them now and then—they came through periodically, but lately we've had a flood of the biggest men in the world as far as financing is concerned."

Mr. X got up from his desk and at first was somewhat cautious. The smile disappeared from his face, and it was replaced by a frown. He closed his office door, then with a very sad look on his face, he said, "Chaplain, Atlantic Richfield has just completed the transaction of borrowing the worth of the company."

I exclaimed, "That's bankruptcy!"

He did not like the word "bankruptcy" but he remarked in his own way that was just about the size of what was happening. I had commented that it was financial suicide, and he acknowledged that was what was taking place.

At that point Mr. X and I talked again about the conversation he had with Senator Chance back in 1975, when Mr. X had remarked that the government wanted to nationalize the oil companies.

As we carried on our conversation that day in 1976, I said to Mr. X, "You have just completed the borrowing of the worth of the company?""Yes, Chaplain," he answered. I looked at him and said, "But why?"
He said to me, "Chaplain, we are struggling for survival."

I answered, "But, sir, that is not what they tell us. They say that the oil companies are huge monsters that are robbing the people of America. As American people, we have been told that the oil companies have no need of money—that they are great wealthy barons that have more than they could ever dare dream of. Why this big struggle for survival?"

Mr. X remarked, "Chaplain, the only reason we borrowed the worth of the company was that we might complete the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline—and in so doing, remain solvent by the sale of the oil."

Then so many things came together in my mind. Cost overruns had caused the costs to be increased from an estimated $600,000,000 in 1971 to the actual cost of the Pipeline being $12,000,000,000. No company could stand such cost increases in just a few short years—and that applies to even the wealthy oil barons. So now Atlantic Richfield was in debt for the amount of their total corporate worth.

At this point even more things began to add up. Not only were there extreme cost overruns, but there were the false claims of faulty welding, withdrawals of permits, orders to dig up pipes. There were Union "wobblings" or "slow down" factors. "Stop the flow of oil" seemed to be the constant intent. There was the building of those $10,000 outhouses, a flotilla was frozen and allowed to be crushed by the ice, and then there were those falcons—at a million dollars each! There were also the absurd rules concerning the "precious tundra," and ridiculous Federal laws and regulations, and excessive and unwarranted fines, and more ....

Yes, it all added up now. Stop the oil! And now, one of the major oil companies of America had borrowed the worth of the company—just to survive. But the American people—surely they would be told all this? Why not ease up the restrictions, for after all there is an energy crisis, even if it was artificially induced, causing gas prices to go higher and higher all the time. Then there is the matter of interest on $12 billion dollars. Can you imagine what the interest would be on $12 billion dollars? . . . at today's interest rates that are going up all the time? This is a struggle for survival by free enterprise.

I kind of laughed within myself as I remembered that picture on the wall of one of the dorms one day. It was a picture of a little child sitting on a potty. Beside the child was a roll of toilet paper. As the child reached for a piece of toilet paper, the caption under the picture read, "The job isn't finished until the paper work is done."

Yes, there were literally rooms filled with paperwork. Companies had been hired to do nothing but manage the paperwork of records. Daily, airplanes were traveling back and forth from camps to Fairbanks and Anchorage, doing nothing but carrying men who were traveling to take care of paperwork. Almost daily some official on the Pipeline would come to me and say, "Chaplain, I'm so frustrated I hardly know where to turn, because we've been applying for that permit for weeks. They know the job has to be stopped until that permit is given. All this time my men are sitting there, doing nothing while we're waiting on the State to make surveys, and to decide a simple question of a minor permit that prior to this we had no problem whatsoever getting. In these last six months of the Pipeline these permits are taking longer and longer, going through the maze of bureaucracy. The paperwork has gotten to the point that it's momentous." It was indeed a struggle for survival. Yes, no doubt, the job isn't finished until the paperwork is done. But let me return to my conversation with Mr. X. I asked myself a question, which I then put to Mr. X: "Sir, does the United States government own the oil companies?"

I do not remember his exact words, but paraphrased it was something like this, "No. The United States government does not own the oil companies literally, but they might as well. After all, it's their land that we produce the oil from, on the North Slope of Alaska, and they might just as well have built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline—after all, we can do nothing at all without their permits. Not even to the building of a section of a haul road, or laying of a gravel pad, or the drilling of a well, or the production of so many barrels of oil a day from that well. In fact, we are told almost everything we are to do. We don't really run this job."

Does the Federal government own the oil companies of America? They tell them how many dollars they have to spend to put a smog protection device on their refineries. They tell them exactly how the ships have to be built to haul the oil to California, and to Washington, and to Oregon, after it has been taken out of the North Slope of Alaska. If all that's not enough, they even tell them the kind of paperwork they have to turn in to prove everything they are doing.

After I put my question to him about the Federal government's owning the oil companies, Mr. X said to me very sincerely, "Chaplain, they will soon. The fact is that if we don't flow that oil in time, we will go into bankruptcy."

For the first time, I had heard it with my own ears. That was it—that was really what they were after. I finally had the last piece to the puzzle, and at last the whole picture fitted together.

I heard one of the men say one day, "I work for the purpose of paying taxes." That was it. The Federal government was aiming at total control. They knew that if they could stop the flow of oil, they would bankrupt the oil companies, and there would automatically be nationalization of the oil industry. From this time on I looked even more carefully. I would talk to the men after I preached, and I realized that the whole idea, for that period of six months, was to stop the flow of oil.

At that point I had to go back and see Mr. X again, and I did. I remembered the day that I asked him the question, "Mr. X, is the Federal government attempting to delay the flow of oil on the Alaska pipeline?"
He emphatically said, "Yes!" He was angry and did not say it in a way that I would put in this book. I would not put in this book anything that I was told not to tell, but that day he was very disturbed and did not tell me or ask me not to put it in this form. He said, "Yes, they're trying to delay the flow of oil." Then he continued, "I'm going to go a step further. Chaplain, if they delay the flow of oil for a period of six months, the oil companies of America will be thrown into bankruptcy." He had already referred to the possibility of bankruptcy, but now it seemed a much closer possibility. Then I went out to the job again. I had heard Mr. X say it. It really was a deliberate scheme, and I had seen it. More and more regulations. Rules. Withdrawing of permits—so it had gone, on and on and on. As I talked to the men, they indicated the same situation. They were agreed that there was a deliberate intention to delay the flow of oil.

I went back to my room and, if I remember the day correctly, I prayed about it all that day. This is what I came up with in the conclusion of my own mind: "There is an energy crisis in America, artificially induced, and if not, why did they close down that cross-country pipeline in Wheatland, Wyoming? (We have mentioned that in an earlier chapter.) They are trying to produce an oil crisis, and if this oil was allowed to flow on time, it would produce two million barrels of oil a day, at its maximum output. That is a great amount of the precious oil that America needs."

We have said that bankruptcy would lead to nationalization. If the government managed to nationalize the oil companies, that would virtually have broken the back of private enterprise in this country.
I began to get in touch with the men even more. I made it a point to ride the line each day, to get up earlier than I had been doing, to find an oil official who would allow me to ride around with him in his truck all the day, just for the sake of talking.

As I rode with one oil company official today, and another tomorrow, and another the next day, I would keep asking questions. I was after the truth, and one oil company official would not know what the other had told me.

One day I rode with one of the men who was responsible for certain parts of the procedures associated with the final flow of the oil—I will not identify him any more than that (or the places we rode in his pickup truck) for I want to protect his anonymity. But I watched, and I saw something that I could hardly believe, because I had never seen this before. I will not elaborate the particular incident, for it might identify the man involved. The point is, that incident impressed on me that there was suddenly a dramatic change in the attitude of oil company officials. They had "come out fighting."

By now there were two to three months until oil flow. I had watched as the project became of immense size, and the number of men on the Slope grew day by day, with the camps all full and the job running full speed ahead. I had seen both the Federal and the State governments withdraw different permits, and literally back the oil companies into a corner where they had to fight I remember as a boy back on the farm in Georgia, if you ever backed an animal into a corner, even if he was an animal that knew he could not win—if you got him pinned up, he would fight. In those circumstances even a small animal would attack you in an effort to get away. That was exactly what was happening now with the oil companies. The government had backed them into a corner. Time was of the essence, for cost overruns had gone to such a state that interest alone would eat them up. So there was no choice—that oil had to flow, and it had to flow on time! The only way that the oil companies could survive was to flow that oil on the given date.

How did they do it? I'll tell you how they did it—the oil companies themselves can never tell you the story, so I will. By now the job had grown to such an enormous size that there weren't enough State and Federal inspectors to keep up with every aspect of the job. I watched, in that last six months of the Pipeline project, as the oil companies literally bulldogged—if I might coin that expression they literally went forward, disregarding the stringent restrictions that had been placed on them by the Federal and State governments. When they were caught, they would pay the fines, and the fines for petty offenses ran into many thousands of dollars—but most of the time they were not caught.

I could name incident after incident, but if I did, it would be possible to identify the oil company officials involved, and I do not want that to be one result of this book being presented to the American people. Indeed, some of those officials might in turn be prosecuted. For that reason I will not record for publication specific dates. There were specific incidents on specific dates, on many occasions when the oil companies moved forward, disregarding the outlandish rules that had been imposed on them by the Federal government. Those impositions were contrary to the rules that had been agreed to when they first contracted for this project for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. They literally rushed madly forward in an attempt to survive and to flow that oil on time, regardless of what it took to do it.

They knew the welds on the big pipeline were not faulty, they knew that the tremendous increases in cost overruns had been caused by exorbitant inflation and unnecessary regimentation. They knew that the practice of withdrawing permits and the issuing of new permits was not correct, either morally or legally. They literally overran the restrictions imposed by the government, and there was nothing the government officials could do about it, because they simply could not keep up with the fast pace.

That oil was going to flow on time. I had never seen this attitude before. Such an attitude had not been there during the first two years and three months of the construction of the oil pipeline, because during that time all regulations were very stringently followed. All permits were carefully obeyed, but now it was quite to the contrary.

This great animal of private enterprise had been backed into a corner, and it was fighting for survival. That was after Atlantic Richfield had borrowed the worth of the company. I do not know what the other companies on the pipeline did, but I do know what this one did, and it was the major producer on the east side of the oil field on that one 100-square mile area from which they had been allowed to produce. So now I watched them as they literally fought for survival. They defied the government officials, because they knew it was only a matter of months and then there would be nothing more they could do about it.

I personally say at this point, "Congratulations to the oil companies." They flowed the oil on time despite a direct attempt by the Federal and State governments to stop that flow from going. It was an intentional plan to bankrupt the oil companies of America so that the oil industry could be nationalized—but they did not succeed.

I think you will agree that the incidents we have recorded make it clear that there was a very serious, concerted attempt to frustrate the oil companies and to make their costs so exorbitant that they would be forced into bankruptcy. It also seems that ultimately one of the ideas was to so discredit the oil companies in the minds of the public that they would be all too ready to allow the whole of the oil industry to be nationalized. The oil companies were to be blamed for the price of gas going up—they were to be the scapegoats, made to appear to be raking in exorbitant profits, while in fact they were being brought to the point where they were enduring a tremendous fight for survival.

Why Are These Arabs Here?

Excerpt from Lindsey Williams book The Energy Non Crisis

Now I was deeply suspicious. I found myself going over the conversations I had with that gentleman, time and time again. In my mind's eye I saw bubbles on X-ray photographs, and I compared good and bad welds. I went over and over the things he had told me. I became convinced that, to quote an old saying, all was not right in the State of Denmark.Then I remembered something else. In my mind I went back to the conversations between Mr. X and Senator Chance, conversations in which I had participated. That had been one and a half years prior to this time, but suddenly I saw tremendous developments relating to some of the things Mr. X had said at the time. I decided I would put some answers to them.What follows is an approximate recall of the questions and answers between Senator Chance and Mr. X, one and a half years earlier. If you like, this is the good old "flashback" method. The questions and answers went like this.Senator Hugh Chance had asked, "Mr. X, how much oil is there on the North Slope of Alaska?""Senator Chance, I'm persuaded there is as much oil as there is in all of Saudi Arabia.""Then, Mr. X, if there is that much oil there, there is not an energy crisis." (Mr. X's only answer was a smile, implying that Senator Chance had hit the nail on the head.)"Mr. X, what do you think the Federal government is really out to do?" "Senator, I personally feel that the American government wants to nationalize the oil companies of America.""Then, Mr. X, if you are so convinced of that fact, have you calculated how long you can remain solvent with present Federal control?"Mr. X was reluctant to answer at first, but then he looked at Senator Chance and said, "Yes, we are so convinced that in fact we, as oil company executives, have made that calculation.""Then how much longer do you think you can remain solvent?" "Until the year 1982.""Then, if what you say is true, why don't you oil companies warn the American people of what is going on? After all, it is your neck that is at stake.""Senator, we can't afford to tell the truth.""Why not?""Because, Senator, the Federal government already has so many laws passed, and regulations imposed on us as oil companies, that if they decided to enforce these rules they could put us into bankruptcy within six months. Sir, we don't dare tell the truth."In passing, we point out that in our later chapters we shall explain how all this ties in with the apparent millions of dollars in profits made by the various oil companies today. There is an explanation, and it is mind-boggling!That was the conversation, virtually word for word, as I remember it. The conversation cannot be denied. Senator Chance and I were both there, and we publicly and privately made it clear that the conversation did take place, just as I have recorded it.Now I was in an unexpected situation. Here we were approaching the end of the time on the pipeline, and there was a story that must be told. Mr. X had understood one and a half years previously that the American government was out to nationalize the oil companies. He had seen it long before I did, but now I understood that too. Should I remain silent? (And even if I talked, would anybody believe me?) Should I be prepared to open my mouth, because I, as a true American, believe in the free enterprise system? Would there be danger, maybe even physical danger, and would there be attacks against my spiritual ministry if I did open my mouth as to the facts that were taking place all around me?I have always been one prepared to accept a challenge. I knew that I had no choice. I had no option but to do what had to be done—to do my part to inform the American people of the dramatic attempts that were being made to bring the oil companies to their knees, to a state of bankruptcy, as one of the necessary steps towards the socialization of the great Republic of which I am a proud member.From that point on I began to pry into everything I could, to find out all the facts that were relevant. I was interested with a new interest that I had not previously had. I was a man with a mission. It might be worthy to note that I was the only Chaplain on this Northern Sector of the Pipeline, and therefore I was the only one who would have access to this particular information. Other Chaplains on the Pipeline would not even have known what I had access to. Therefore they would have no wish to report, either through the media or by such a book as this. I want to make it very clear that in no way am I challenging the integrity of others who were Chaplains at other areas of the Pipeline.As I mentioned previously, I noticed that permits which had been issued for the life of the construction of the Pipeline were now being withdrawn.One day I walked into the office of one of the engineers, and he began to show me what was happening at Happy Valley. Before long I found out that this same story was being multiplied up and down the Northern Sector of the Pipeline. There was a lengthy manual published which listed all the permits. I had reviewed it at the beginning of the construction phase of the Pipeline, and I remember very clearly that the words were that these were to be the rules that were to be followed by everybody for the entire construction phase of the Pipeline.Now we were within nine months of the completion of the Pipeline and of oil flow. This was the status as I was in the engineer's office that day. As soon as I walked into the office he began to say, "Chaplain what do you think of this sort of nonsense? Here the Federal government is instructing us to change the entire system of sewage that we have in this camp. We are a few months from the end of our time here, and the system we've got has proved perfectly satisfactory. If we do what they tell us to do, it's going to run into a fantastic cost, and the whole thing will be left here when we move out in just a few month's time. Have you ever heard of such nonsense? What do you think is their purpose? Why would they want us to remove one system that they approved only a relatively short time ago? Now they've decided that that system is not satisfactory and we must have this new one."I was flabbergasted! "Are you telling me that the system that has only been in for nearly two years, is now so faulty that it must be replaced and won't do for the few extra months we are to be here?""Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I find it hard to believe-there's something wrong somewhere. Sometimes these government regulations are just about impossible to understand. But for us to tear down and haul out our present system would involve a fantastic sum of money. Then we've got to actually rebuild this new sewage system, bring it in, put it up, and there is absolutely no point in doing it. The system we have is perfectly satisfactory. It almost seems as though the government is doing its utmost to slow down the development of the Pipeline, and maybe even to make the costs as high as they can. What do you think Chaplain? Are they trying to break the oil companies, or delay the flow of oil? What do you make of it?"I looked at him, and then I asked, "What do you think yourself? Do you think the new system is justified ... is there something wrong with the old system?""No, Chaplain! There's nothing wrong with the old system. The water that comes out from that system after it's been treated is so pure that you could drink it. There's absolutely no reason at all why the old system should be taken out. Nor does the water hurt the ecology—it's just good, ordinary pure water. This whole business is utterly ridiculous, and what's more, there are a lot more withdrawals of permits taking place up and down the Pipeline. I wish I knew what was going on.""Yes, I wish I knew what was going on, too,"I answered quietly. I kept some of my thoughts to myself, but as I left him I was thinking deeply. Lots of things were falling into place, in ways that were clear, but very undesirable. It did seem that the Federal government, for reasons of its own, was doing its utmost to slow down the project and increase its costs. They wanted to embarrass the oil companies in every way they could, especially financially.There was more, and more, and more. I talked to yet another executive with Atlantic Richfield, and some of the things he told me were equally as startling.It was about this time I noticed some unusual visitors. Who were all those men coming into Prudhoe Bay? Why, all of a sudden, are men coming in dressed in Arab garb—why are these Arabs here? What are the bankers from New York doing here? I had seen them from time to time during the two years, but now they were all converging at one time onto Prudhoe Bay, with instructions to be allowed to see everything. I knew the oil company official who had been designated to be their host. I knew him personally. Day after day he was coming to me saying, "Chaplain, you'll never guess who came through today. Chaplain, do you want to rub shoulders with one of the richest men in the world? Chaplain, why don't you ride in the back seat today? I have with me the Secretary-Treasurer of such and such a company ... Chaplain, would you like to witness spiritually to one of the top men you'd never touch, because he would probably never go to one of your church services? ... Chaplain today I've been designated to take a man all around through the Bay who has come here all the way from Saudi Arabia. In fact, he's coming in his own hired jet..."Day after day, I heard talk like this, and I watched as a stream of these financial experts came to Prudhoe Bay. Why were they here? What were they coming in for? Why all of a sudden this interest in Prudhoe Bay? The money men of the world were coming from everywhere. Something intentional was going on. Something that without a doubt was planned, and now it was adding up more and more. I could see it very plainly. The pieces were indeed fitting together.

One Law for the Rich, Another for the Poor

We've talked about the two-million dollar falcon's nest, and the $10,000 outhouses. There were many other similar incidents—they can be multiplied, and taken together, they involved a huge sum of money.
Another method to add to the price of the pipeline, and again to the price that you the individual will pay at the gas pump, was the almost incredible use of fines. On one occasion a vehicle with sightseers on board ran off the road to let a truck go by. No damage was done —there was nothing off the road, just the tundra. Remember that it would take an ax to break through that tundra. Nevertheless, there was a fine of $10,000 levied because that vehicle ran off the road. Of course, it was not the sightseers that got fined, but the ARCO company.

People living in the lower 48 will find it hard to believe that such practices continued, but they surely did. Another case was where a pickup truck drove into the river to turn around. A security guard had locked the gate, and so this was the way that the driver solved his own problem. Again the ARCO company got fined $10,000 for not making an adequate turn around. They hurt nothing driving their vehicle into the river, and it is really impossible to figure out why they should have been fined—but fined they were.

The amounts of these fines were announced in the paper very often, and there would be a small write-up. It didn't make big news, for the policy seemed to be to keep these matters in low key. It is ultimately the poor guy who buys gas for his automobile that pays those fines of $10,000 and more—for the most trivial offenses against the huge number of regulations to which the oil companies were subjected.

Not only were there very heavy fines, but also they dragged the work out. One section of road was supposed to be a five week project, but because of government meddling, it was about 3 months before it was finished. The government tinkered with the administration, fined the company, and stopped them in all sorts of ways. They told them what they could and could not do, when they could work and when they could not. At one time there were 22 government monitors working on that one section of road. They came from such departments as the Department of the Interior, the Department of Fisheries and Game, and the U.S. Geographic Coastal Survey. Most of them were Federal workers, but some were State workers also. Those 22 workers were running around surveying the same stretch of road at the same time, day after day. While that stretch of road was being built, some 18 fines were levied—in a three month period. Every one of those fines was for at least $10,000.


Excerpt from The Energy Non Crisis

Lindsey Williams presents Jonathan May - Economic Hitman-1986

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" author John Perkins argues that the United states has created a modern-day empire through the use of economic blackmail and the undermining of foreign governments. Economist and writer John Perkins was deeply involved in Washington's economic schemes to create a global empire. Now he tells what's come out of it - and who really controls the world's biggest economy.

Jonathan May formerly worked for the International Monetary Fund in England. In the early 1980s he came to America with a plan to release Americans from debt to the banking system by employing the same "credit creating" system used by international banking. The law governing this system is the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). May was initially successful. Eventually, however, he was targeted and imprisoned by the banking system. He is now in a Federal prison in the midwest. While in prison he was interviewed by Lindsey Williams via phone. This is a talk, given by Lindsey Williams in 1986, and covers the continuing efforts of International Bankers to control the economies of the world through 20:1 fractional lending, gold and oil manipulation, and eventually the setup of one world central bank. "The Secret History of the American Empire" with John Perkins, author of "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man." Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world such as Venezuela, Tibet, Iraq, Israel, Vietnam and others and exposes the network of events in each of these countries that have contributed to the creation of the American Empire and international corruption in "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption" - Cody's Books John Perkins spent three decades as an Economic Hit Man, business executive, author, and lecturer. He lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America. Then he made a decision: he would use these experiences to make the planet a better place for his daughter's generation. Today he teaches about the importance of rising to higher levels of consciousness, to waking up - in both spiritual and physical realms - and is a champion for environmental and social causes. He has lectured at universities on four continents, including Harvard, Wharton, and Princeton.