Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Polytx/oil
In the early 1970s auto drivers were screaming in rage from long gas lines that stretched for blocks around gas stations all over America. Gasoline was in short supply the oil companies explained reasonably: supply and demand. "Small supply, expensive to buy."
Au contraire! Company antagonists screamed that the companies purposely regulate their supply scheduling and mechanical refurbishments for deliberate 'shorts' during holiday seasons, summers particularly, when they jack the formidable dollar switch into operation until consumers develop acid stomach and night sweats.
As a radio officer aboard a 700 ft tanker loaded at Texas City, Texas, we departed Bolivar Roads destined for Boston with a full load of motor gasoline, millions of gallons.
Arrived a week later in Boston, we took orders for anchoring. The Boston GLOBE reported on Boston's petroleum supplies: "AREA TANKS BRIM." Twenty four hours later, still at anchor and unable to discharge cargo because of brimming tanks, we were ordered to proceed to new Haven, just around the corner.
Upon arrival, we anchored once again, but were un able to discharge until a day later, for New Haven had the same problem of gas bloat as Boston with its near half-mill inhabitants.
When we looked out on New Haven's streets, checked Yale University's green 'quad,' the
scruffy unwashed hippies lying in their own excrement, 'reveling in the throes of fornication' on that weed-strewn verdure, the long lines of autos mirroring Boston's fuel problems were still strung out for a half mile waiting for the controlled substance that ran their lives.
Just another tribute to the oil cartel's sensitive tweaking of the petro-petcock.
***
Au contraire! Company antagonists screamed that the companies purposely regulate their supply scheduling and mechanical refurbishments for deliberate 'shorts' during holiday seasons, summers particularly, when they jack the formidable dollar switch into operation until consumers develop acid stomach and night sweats.
As a radio officer aboard a 700 ft tanker loaded at Texas City, Texas, we departed Bolivar Roads destined for Boston with a full load of motor gasoline, millions of gallons.
Arrived a week later in Boston, we took orders for anchoring. The Boston GLOBE reported on Boston's petroleum supplies: "AREA TANKS BRIM." Twenty four hours later, still at anchor and unable to discharge cargo because of brimming tanks, we were ordered to proceed to new Haven, just around the corner.
Upon arrival, we anchored once again, but were un able to discharge until a day later, for New Haven had the same problem of gas bloat as Boston with its near half-mill inhabitants.
When we looked out on New Haven's streets, checked Yale University's green 'quad,' the
scruffy unwashed hippies lying in their own excrement, 'reveling in the throes of fornication' on that weed-strewn verdure, the long lines of autos mirroring Boston's fuel problems were still strung out for a half mile waiting for the controlled substance that ran their lives.
Just another tribute to the oil cartel's sensitive tweaking of the petro-petcock.
***
