Venezuela's Oil Giveaway

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1157172,00.html

Hugo Chavez is helping the U.S. poor with discounted heating oil—while irritating his foes in Washington
By TIM PADGETT/MIAMI

Posted Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2006
When you’re a U.S. Congressman and 25,000 constituent families can’t find affordable heating oil this winter, you tend not to care where help comes from. That’s at least how U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah of Philadelphia felt last week when Citgo — the U.S.-based company owned by the government of Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez — delivered 5 million gallons of heating oil at a 40% discount to low-income Philadelphia residents. Fattah says he doesn’t understand the objections of many congressional conservatives who feel U.S. cities should not be helping improve the image of Chavez, one of President Bush’s most strident critics. "The U.S. buys 1.5 million barrels of oil from Venezuela each day at full price," says Fattah, "so why would anyone complain about getting some at almost half price?"

That’s a question the Bush Administration — whose feelings for Chavez are certainly mutual — has struggled to answer ever since Venezuela initiated the Citgo program last November. While the heating oil gesture has certainly allowed Chavez to tweak Bush’s nose, it is also being recognized inside and outside of Washington as a public relations coup for Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution (named for South America’s 19th-century independence hero, Simon Bolivar).

As a result, it’s growing well beyond its original scope: Philadelphia, Boston, the Bronx and cities in Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island have received a total of 45 million gallons of the subsidized Citgo fuel, and other cities are slated for another 5 million soon. That’s a small percentage of the heating oil Venezuela exports to the U.S. each year, but Citgo says it has set aside about 10% of its refined petroleum products for the program. Says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, D.C., "Unfortunately for the Bush Administration, Chavez is proving to be a more inventive thinker in terms of hemispheric politics."

It’s also good business thinking, says Venezuela’s Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez, one of the program’s architects. When 13 U.S. Senators sent a letter to major U.S. oil companies last fall seeking heating fuel aid for lower-income residents in northern states, Citgo — a subsidiary of the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) — was the only one to step forward. "The U.S. is our biggest {oil export} customer," says Alvarez. "PDVSA is simply responding to that client the way any company should."

[laheina]

1. That is awesome!

Of course the conservatives are peeved because that's oil money that they may have been able to squeeze out of poor people. :eyes: Shame on them for being so greedy.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bush and his people would despise Hugo Chavez for any reason

you could name. They hate his clothing, no doubt, his hair, his shoes. They hate him because he doesn't support the doctrine of murderous greed, and he won't bend over for them.

Thanks for this great article. The more said, the better! People need to know what kind of man he is, WITHOUT the _Bush right-wing (((( spin )))).

[corporate_mike]

3. Keep in mind that most Venezuelans live in poverty :(

[izzybeans]

4. New Hampshire apparently has an unanswered request for

aid. per NPR.

It seems some states are seeking them out because of this. I hope they can extend these offerings to more areas.