Venezuela expands controversial US fuel sales
Mon Feb 27,
Venezuela's controversial fuel subsidies for the U.S. poor expanded into Connecticut on Monday, two weeks after U.S. Republican lawmakers questioned whether the cheap oil masked a broader anti-American agenda.
The assistance, described as "humanitarian aid" by Venezuela's embassy in Washington, deepens an ongoing spat between leftist President Hugo Chavez and President George W. Bush, who calls Chavez a threat to democracy in Latin America.
Venezuela, where per capita income is about one tenth that of the United States, will provide 4.8 million gallons of heating oil at a 40 percent discount to Connecticut households that qualify for state home heat assistance, state officials said.
"This heating oil assistance fills an unfortunate, profoundly important need for our citizens -- and is consistent with our laws," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in a statement released on one of the coldest days of the winter in the Northeast United States.
Connecticut is the seventh state to receive cheap oil from Venezuela, which also sent shipments to Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Vermont. The Bronx in New York City also joined the program.
Citgo estimates that it will be distributing some 44.5 million gallons of discounted heating oil and giving another 258,000 gallons free to homeless shelters.
Blumenthal said about 15,000 low-income Connecticut citizens would benefit from the deal with Citgo, a refiner and gasoline retailer owned by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
The exports are seen as an attempt by Chavez to embarrass the Bush administration, which the Venezuelan leader says neglects poor Americans.
Flush with cash from soaring oil prices, Chavez has used his nation's petroleum wealth to secure closer ties with South American neighbors while taunting Washington by pushing his socialist ideas as an alternative to U.S. influence.
Venezuela supplies about 15 percent of U.S. oil imports.
In a backlash against the fuel program, one Texas-based religious organization has promoted a boycott of Citgo to protest Chavez's confrontation with the U.S. government.
Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has expressed concern over whether the sales are "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy" toward Washington.
Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican from Kentucky, has said he wanted to find out if the program was "part of a larger political agenda." |
