Americans ignore politics to hail Chavez’s cheap oil offer
By Jason Szep
QUINCY (US): With a chill of autumn in the air, Bridget Durkin welcomes cheap heat for her Massachusetts home, even if it comes from a Venezuelan leader who called US President George W. Bush “the devil.”
“If people are really hard up, politics will be the furthest thing from their mind,” said Durkin, 71, who has relied on government subsidies to heat her home in Quincy, a suburb of Boston, since her husband died 20 years ago.
Citgo Petroleum, backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, plans to expand a controversial programme of subsidizing home-heating oil for the US poor this year, doubling the number of states that will receive the cheap oil.
Flush with cash from soaring oil prices, Chavez has used Venezuela’s petroleum wealth to secure closer ties with South American neighbours and proposed the US heating oil programme last year to trim costs for America’s poor — a group he says Bush’s government has severely neglected.
Citgo, the Houston unit of Venezuelan state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, will sell 80 million to 100 million gallons of heating oil for 40 per cent less than its usual price in 16 states — from Alaska to the US east coast.
The expanded programme threatens to deepen an ongoing spat between Chavez and Bush, who calls the Venezuelan a threat to democracy in Latin America. Socialist Chavez says Bush is trying to undermine his political support.
But America’s needy are reluctant to turn the oil away.
“When you are on limited income, that oil is just as good as any other oil,” said Mary Lyons, 88, of Windham, Maine, whose 90-year-old husband’s pension and social security benefits barely covered their monthly heating bills that spiked 40 per cent last winter. “My husband says if we can save a few dollars why shouldn’t we.”
Venezuela, where per capita income is about 1/10th that of the United States, has called the fuel “humanitarian aid.”
Many politicians last year praised Citgo for helping the needy. Maine Gov. John Baldacci shook hands with Citgo Chief Executive Felix Rodriguez in Lyons’ driveway before a bank of TV cameras at a high-profile launch of the programme.
This year, spokesman Dan Cashman said Baldacci “is not going to participate in that particular programme.”
Under the plan, those exhausting federal heating oil aid can receive up to 200 gallons of Citgo oil, discounted by about $300 based compared to market rates of $2.50 a gallon.
“We get scores of calls every day from people asking when the programme starts,” said Brian O’Connor of the non-profit Citizens Energy Corp., which helps Citgo distribute the oil and is headed by former US Rep. Joe Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy.
Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who helped broker the Citgo deal last year, said Chavez’ behaviour should be separated from Citgo’s philanthropy.
“I’ve sent a letter to President Chavez expressing my outrage at his remarks,” he said. “But let’s make the distinction here between the Citgo programme and the behaviour of Hugo Chavez.”
But Bruce Everett, who teaches petroleum economics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said the programme aims to embarrass Bush and portray America as fundamentally weak.
“Under Hugo Chavez, Citgo has basically been turned into an instrument of state policy,” he said.—Reuters
