GARY SKEEM: AN INDEPENDENT IDAHOAN

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Gary: I guess you'd better march on down here and do it then.

Apparently that was not the direction the UP & L official had expected the conversation to take, because he paused for a good while before continuing on a different-tack:

UP & L: How much do you have invested in that generator ... $10,000?

Gary: Yes, about that much.

UP & L: Do you realize that if you'd taken that money and put it in a bank, you could pay for all the UP & L electricity that you'd ever need with the interest?

Gary: Could be, but that's not the way I chose to do it.

Mr. Skeem now likes to add that-as he spoke those words-he was actually thinking, "The generator's worth ten grand, buddy, if it helps me get rid of you and your kind! "

The following day the power company sent linemen to remove the Skeems' meter. For some time after that, the utility talked about taking away the wires and poles as well, but they eventually backed down . . . because of both the cost of such an effort and the adverse publicity they were already beginning to receive.

The plucky power-maker even had a few thoughts about instigating legal proceedings against the utility-since he was aware of the New York state decision requiring utilities to buy excess power from a small installation-but those ideas were set aside in favor of a total separation from UP & L influence. Now (after nearly three years) the Skeems still aren't using a single watt of "public" electricity.

In fact, there's an additional Leffel unit next to the first one now, and Gary is in the process of restoring an old turbine to further augment his capacity. Somewhere in the works is a plan to move the grain mill manufacturing business onto his residential property and hook that into the turbines, too.

But the self-taught inventor hasn't restricted his explorations to hydropower. Most of his current energies are devoted to developing a hybrid electric car . . . which is proceeding as quickly as finances will allow. And if this Idaho entrepreneur's past track record in turning ideas into realities is any indication of how his future projects will go, we should be hearing more about that particular alternative energy vehicle in the very near future!

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