40 YEARS AGO • MAY 31, 1979

OIL CRISIS EFFECTS SLOW IN HITTING AREA

The American society has always been a mobile one. But in these days of rising costs amid the tremors of a fuel crunch, American travel in the future may be restricted.

The “oil shortage,” is considered by many to be a trick or rip off developed y the oil companies. Some say that there is no oil shortage.

Opinions differ as to the cause and effect the current oil shortage will have on Sanders County businesses and residents.

“The gas situation is going to get worse before it gets any better,” said Bary Moore, three-year operator of the Moore Oil Co. bulk plan in Thompson Falls. “I’m not going to turn anyone down this month but I don’t know about next month.”

Moore supplies five western Sanders County gas stations with gasoline along with selling diesel fuel to 20 logging trucks and numerous private home furnaces. His fuel comes from the Conoco and Amoco Billings refineries.

“I’m getting 80 per cent of what I bought last year, both gas and diesel,” Moore said. Getting diesel wasn’t bad until October last fall and gas was fine until March this year. Now diesel is getting much worse.”

Ron Turk, owner of the local Husky station is operating on 85 per cent of last year’s sales. The allocation of 1979 fuel is determined by the government based on how much was sold during the same period of 1978.

Turk says the summer gas situation will depend on the amount of tourist travel but presently he’s “cutting hours to keep gas available longer.”

In effect, Turk and many other stations are closing early each day so they won’t have to close permanently if their monthly allocations are used up before the new shipment arrives.

Harold and Wilbur Vaught, 28-year owners of the Exxon station, provide about 12 logging trucks with diesel along with their regular gasoline and fuel oil service.

We’ve been getting what we’ve been asking for and using all that,” Harold said. “We’ll just wait and see what happens and make the best of it.”

Pack River Lumber Co. mill manager Ernie Franke said the shortage hasn’t affected the mill a great deal yet.

“So far we’ve got what is required and have 20,000 gallons of diesel and gas in storage,” Franke said. The mill burns about 600 gallons of diesel a day between the four 966 Cats and three lift trucks operating plus other small equipment.

Although the area mills and truckers may have enough fuel to transport the lumber to the saws and get it stockpiled in the lumber yards, the system gets slightly shaky from then on.

Questions about the oil problem arouse many varied and interesting responses. Some people blame the large oil companies, some blame the Middle East, some the government, and some blame all three. Answers are many, and often unprintable, but practical solutions seem to be few. The problems probably will not be solved soon enough to stop the price of gasoline before it reaches one dollar a gallon.