Harlan Hansen

The Gastrend Conspiracy Harlan Hansen

The GasTrend Conspiracy is the fictional account of an attempted takeover of a natural gas distribution company by a major city through condemnation action and citizen vote. The reasons for the attempted condemnation and ultimate ownership of GasTrend by the city are the mayor's hatred of GasTrend and the city's declining revenues due to an economic downturn.

The initial gas company crisis begins when a county road grader slips on an icy ridge in below zero weather. The grader slides through a bridge railing and cuts open the high-pressure natural gas line feeding gas to the city. The ensuing explosion and fire consumes the road grader, kills the operator, and prevents new natural gas from flowing into the city, thus, endangering residents because soon there will be no heat. Something must be done quickly or the residents could freeze.

In order to own and operate the gas company, the mayor convinces some legislators to introduce a bill in the State House that would allow condemnation action. This would insure that they would also pay for all of the expenses of the action and the subsequent election. How can they get the natural gas business back on track so that it is working for the people and not against them?