Terrel L. Shields
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Arkansas
Yep. More than one way to skin a cat without getting hair in your teeth. Just sub it all out.
When Carter started the Dept of Energy in the 70s, it was rapidly ramping up in the number of employees and cars as a result. So they increased the budget but at the same time, the Iranian situation meant a jump in fuel cost, so Carter demanded all department including DOE cut fuel use by 10%. So, they did. They drove the DOE vehicles to Hertz and, once there, rented cars with full tanks of gas, drove them 250 miles and returned to pick up another car with a full tank. Meanwhile the DOE vehicles sit idle in the parking lot of Hertz - who charged them for parking, charged them for the gas and charged 50 cents a mile plus $50 a day for the lent autos. This is 1979. DOE spent easily 4x the money renting rigs than driving their own and buying their own gas but could brag that they met the 10% reduction in fuel USE as a result. How do I know? Well, I was a subcontractor to the subcontractor who worked for DOEs prime subcontractor - Bendix Corp. Yes, we had a DOE engineer overseeing a Bendix geologist who oversaw my firm whom, at the time, I was independently contracted to as a geologist. I and a woman geologist were working in tandem with 2 other geologists for our firm, Exploration Services Inc., and of the 4, I was the only one not a direct employee of ESI. As pairs we worked behind 2 drill rigs also contracted to Bendix, examining the samples for uranium.
In another example of government stupidity, there was a rig capable of 1100' and one capable of over 2000'. The larger rig was supposed to drill the deeper holes but the deepest hole was 1400' and the DOE engineer insisted the smaller rig drill a hole deeper than its rated capacity. Although a brand new rig, we actually broke the derrick drilling the deeper rig and had to make field repairs. Why did he insist the small rig drill the deep hole? The rigs were owned by two different companies so there was no way to switch drillers. But the engineer decided the driller on the larger rig 'only' had 8 years experience, whereas the driller for the small rig had 12 years... Buddy, if you cannot operate your own rig (and the driller owned the rig) after 8 years, you went out of business long ago.
