Lawmakers Seek Info on Cheap Venezuela Oil

[cal04]

The House Energy chairman said Thursday he suspects politics, not charity, is behind the Venezeulan offer to provide cheap heating oil to poor Americans. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the subcommittee for oversight and investigations, wrote to Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, on Wednesday asking officials to provide them with all records pertaining to the program by Feb. 23.

They said they are concerned the oil deals are ``part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy toward'' the United States. The letter came as the U.S. and Venezuelan ambassadors began talking after a diplomatic rift marked by expulsions and threats to cut off oil supplies. Citgo spokesman David McCollum declined comment Thursday, saying company officials were still studying the request. The two lawmakers said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's ``purportedly altruistic motives may camouflage his true motivations'' in providing the low-cost oil to Americans. ``Given President Chavez's clear anti-American sentiments, his current efforts must be viewed with concern that he is attempting to politicize the debate over U.S. energy policy,'' Barton and Whitfield wrote.

The letter drew a mocking response from some Northeast lawmakers, who have been supportive of the deal to help low-income families, particularly given this winter's high fuel prices. ``It's transparent, it's petty, it's political,'' said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who helped broker the original deal for cut-rate oil between Venezuelan officials and Massachusetts last year. ``Obviously, this is an effort to politicize a program that's really making a difference in the lives of people.''

Tensions have run high between the Bush administration and Chavez, a self-styled socialist who has been a sharp critic of American-style capitalism and has branded President Bush a ``madman.'' Delahunt said he is pushing to extend the current agreement with Citgo for five years in Massachusetts. Citgo this week extended its discounted heating oil sales to Delaware and the Philadelphia area. Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut are also participating in Citgo's program.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5626166,00.html

[Auntie Bush]

1. Hey! Where do we get some of that cheap oil? I haven't seen any!

[Inland]

6. Thread title lead me to believe they wanted cheap oil.

Silly me.

[TaleWgnDg]

2. Who is to blame? WHO?

.
Who is to blame? WHO?

As George Walker Bush and his oil cronies cut back government oil subsidies to the poor, socialist Chavez steps up to the plate and sells Massachusetts, Maine and some other states cheap oil for the poor.

Again, WHO is to blame? But that damn hypocrite, George Walker Bush.
.


Citgo sign as seen from Boston's Fenway Park
.

[Matariki]

3. hmmm, lets see, Repulican-Texas & Republican-Kentucky

why doesn't that surprise me? Especially Texas.

[Inland]

4. Congress COULD investigate the reasons it is SO easy to score on Bush.

Yeah, it's a cheap transparent political ploy. Yeah, it STILL kicked Bush's ass. Instead of republicizing it, the repug congress could note that Bush is the worst president ever and has a reputation tied with Osama. Don't blame Chavez because he takes advantage of someone who hates him. Blame Bush for have terrible policies that earn him the emnity of nations.

[rucky]

5. They've got alot of nerve offering aid to the poor like that!

harumph!

[fed-up]

7. new definition- "hostile foreign policy"=saving our seniors from dying n/t

[dweller]

8. Repugs wouldn't know charity

if it bit them in the ass.

If they are so concerned about oil deals, how about investigating the record profits of Amerkan oil companies who seem to be
"part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile ... policy toward" their own citizens!

otherwise, stuff it.
dp

[Gman]

9. They're wanting to nip anything in the bud

that might bring down fuel prices. Obviously Citgo is not in on the price fixing and collusion and finds itself under investigation as a result.

[CAG]

10. However, the same two repubs are chillingly silent about cheap clothes,

toys, housewares, tools, tennis shoes, etc, provided to wal-mart from "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy toward'' the United States, namely, China.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Barton and pal are trying to interfere to the extent they can get the

deals broken Citgo has with a handful of Democratic Congressmen and their states, and New York City's Congressman Serrano, as well as native American tribes.

They aren't content to see the poor in these areas getting heating oil at a 40% discount. They know it will be associated mentally with the Democratic Congressmen who took the initiative to go ahead and make a deal with Citgo, after the 5 American oil companies they contacted for reduced rates for the poor areas told them to go pound sand.

I hope Barton goes down in flames without having acheived his plans. He's an utter asshole.



How could something like this be allowed to run around loose? Republican Congressman Joe Barton.

[1932]

12. Republicans are spinning free oil for poor into belligerance? Wow.

[aden_nak]

13. A beligerent and hostile policy of giving us a discount on oil? BASTARDS!

[rman]

14. Well of course.

Helping the weak and the poor is political - as is not helping them.

Nothing wrong really with having politicians do politics - it's their job.

It's what they do and don't do that counts, not so much the fact that they do politics in the first place.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Another state joins the special U.S. Venezuelan oil group. Delaware!

Low-cost heating oil from Venezuela arrives in DelawareUpdate 1:01 pm
By ANGIE BASIOUNY
The News Journal

02/14/2006
WILMINGTON — Delaware today received its first shipment of more than 1 million gallons of low-cost heating oil from Venezuela under an agreement worked out by the country’s ambassador and a Hockessin lawyer.

The oil from Citgo Petroleum Co., Venezuela’s national oil company, is being offered to Delaware at a 40 percent discount to benefit low-income families. The 1 million gallons will be distributed by Delaware’s Catholic Charities.

Another 150,000 gallons is being donated directly to homeless shelters such as Martha House II in Wilmington, where dignitaries and local officials gathered this morning to discuss the deal and watch workers pump the first delivery into the shelter’s tank.

“This has nothing to do with partisanship and party labels,” said Richard Korn, a lawyer and political watchdog. “People need our help.”

Korn is credited with bringing the discounted oil to Delaware through his personal acquaintance with Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez.
(snip/...)

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060214/NEWS/60214010

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Richard Korn catalyst for bringing CITGO discounted heating oil to low-income Delawareans...

For Immediate Release

(Wilmington, DE) - December 22, 2005 - Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez has announced that the State of Delaware will be included in the CITGO discounted home heating oil program for the needy poor. This program, where CITGO supplies oil at 40 percent below market prices, has already been successfully brought to Massachusetts, via the nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation, headed by former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, and to New York's South Bronx, via nonprofit groups organized by Rep. Jose Serrano.

In making the announcement, Ambassador Alvarez, who visited Wilmington in October, said: “It is particularly gratifying that the people of Venezuela can offer to the people of Delaware this gift of heating oil which, in the true spirit of Christmas, will provide much-needed warmth this winter. This is one hand reaching out to help another -- brother to brother, sister to sister, friend to friend.”

Richard Korn, who along with his wife Magda, a native Venezuelan, invited and hosted the Ambassador and other embassy officials in October, has been holding discussions with the Ambassador and the Minister Counselor of Energy Affairs, Fadi Kabboul, regarding the heating oil needs of Delaware's poor. The last meeting took place December 16th at the Venezuelan Embassy. Those talks resulted in this agreement.

Mr. Korn said: "We all care about the poor and the needy who face some of the highest energy bills in recent history and, as a result, may have to chose between food or fuel for their families during the bitter winter months. No one should have to make that choice. We are grateful that Ambassador Alvarez had the opportunity to personally tour Wilmington and to see first hand the plight of many poor and needy Delawareans and that our continued discussions have resulted in the decision to include Delaware in the CITGO home heating oil program for the poor. This is not about politics. This is about people helping people. We still have a lot to do. We do not yet have a signed contract with CITGO. We are all working toward that goal. But just knowing that Delaware is now on the list and IN the CITGO program is a much welcomed Christmas gift to many needy families.”
(snip/...)

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:aoxlwGCGM2IJ:www.theprogressiveline.com/VillageHome/tabid/52/mid/855/newsid855/25/Default.aspx+%22Richard+Korn%22+Delaware&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1