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?

James St. Paul, raised in Wyoming and educated at Harvard, is a highly successful rancher, businessman, and entrepreneur. He has helped develop a new strain of cattle and built a small natural gas distribution company into a national corporation with multiple energy sources. He has even served as a lobbyist and started a family. But something is missing. Late in the year 2021, James makes the decision to run as an independent for Wyomings soon-to-be- open US Senate seat. He finds himself running against a well-known conservative state senator and an equally well-known liberal state representative. As he challenges the political status quo in an increasingly polarized environment, only time will tell whether his ethics and conscience can break through the rhetoric of the day and get him into officewhere he can begin to help bring about true change. In this political novel, a man with a unique background and unusual politics runs for a seat in the US Senate and finds himself taking on the political establishment from the outside.

Also available in BUS on CD-ROM: F&S index plus text international (call#: HD1010.F22)