Thousands in Mass. to get cheaper oil - Delahunt, Chávez broker deal (it might as well be Castro)

Boston Globe ^ | November 20, 2005 | Michael Levenson and Susan Milligan

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.

The approximately $9 million deal will bring nine million gallons of oil to families and three million gallons to institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters, said officials from Citizens Energy Corp., which is signing the contract. Families would pay about $276 for a 200-gallon shipment, a savings of about $184 and enough to last about three weeks.

The contract is to be signed Tuesday by officials from Citizens Energy, based in Boston, and CITGO, a Houston-based subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela SA. The contract was arranged after months of talks between Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat active in Latin American affairs, and Chávez, a leftist former paratrooper and fierce critic of the Bush administration.

''We recognized that we had an opportunity," Delahunt's spokesman, Steve Schwadron, said yesterday.

Chávez showed ''an inclination to do a humanitarian distribution" of oil, and poor families in Massachusetts had a ''desperate need" for relief from high home-heating prices, Schwadron said. He characterized the deal as one between ''a US company and two nonprofits to help them do more of what they already do, with terms that mean the price is good."

Delahunt was not available for comment yesterday.

Schwadron said the congressman did not get involved in the details of the contract, but had raised the issue with Chávez and helped connect the nonprofits with CITGO, which is owned by PDV America Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela SA, the national oil company of Venezuela.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

To me this is the same as Cynthia McKinney grabbing for the $10M Saudi check after 9/11.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

***....But Chávez's ambitions extend beyond the Americas. He has signed treaties for "technological cooperation" with the dictators of Libya, Iran, and Syria. He has numerous business interests in those countries, and has publicly described the terror-sponsors who rule them as his "partners" and "friends." The feeling is mutual. Iran and Libya have hundreds of millions invested in Venezuela. Significantly, Chávez was the only foreign leader to visit Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf war. During his visit he embraced Saddam and called him "brother."....***Source

[SuziQ]

Well, it is the Kennedy family running this, after all.

[Brilliant]

"Chávez showed ''an inclination to do a humanitarian distribution" of oil..."


He's made a number of "humanitarian" gestures like this, and gotten publicity from them. I wonder if anyone follows these stories to the end to confirm that he's actually doing it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuelan troops get provocative book***CARACAS - A book published and distributed by the Venezuelan army argues that ''revolutionary Islam'' and U.S. religious extremism are moral equivalents and quotes approvingly from the Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal.

The 250-page Peripheral Warfare and Revolutionary Islam was written by Spanish politician and academic Jorge Verstrynge and is being distributed on the personal orders of Army Chief Gen. Raúl Baduel, a long-time supporter of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Baduel's office said he's not available for an interview until January. Armed Forces Inspector General Gen. Melvin López Hidalgo said he was unaware of the book but argued that its publication by the army should not be taken as ''tacit support for the opinions it contains.'' It's simply an example of ''freedom of expression,'' he added.

....................One foreign military officer in Venezuela, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job, said the Venezuelan army does appear to be endorsing the book's contents. ''It's even got the army's coat of arms on it,'' the official said. ``What more of an endorsement could you have?'' ..........***

[peyton randolph]

Think it is time to start squeezing CITGO...Coast Guard interdiction of all its ships. If all paperwork not perfect, deny entry to the U.S. I'm sure that between customs law and admiralty law, there is plenty that can be used.

As for Delahunt, sounds like an enemy combatant to me. If he wants to be active in Latin affairs on behalf of an enemy of the U.S., time for him to spend time in Club Gitmo.

[Alas Babylon!]

...and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.

Here's how low the left wing moonbat MSM has gotten; foreign leaders are now described based on their stand against Bush! White House critic, LOL!!!! I guess it makes sense from their perspective. Chavez is, after all, a fellow traveler of the Boston Globe.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Oil, politics and Venezuela - Many are wondering how far Chávez will go***President Hugo Chavez lashes out at oil companies, causing alarm bells to ring among foreign investors - .......''The thinking at the time, and I shared it, was that you watched what Chávez actually did rather than listen to what he said,'' said Alex Kazan, an analyst with Bear Sterns, an investment bank. But now, he added, Chávez is backing his rhetoric with actions.

Among his latest actions: an announcement that PDVSA would start paying foreign oil companies in Venezuelan currency, not just U.S. dollars. That means oil firms will be subject to Venezuela's stringent foreign exchange controls, inserting a further element of risk in their business.

.........Only in February, Ali Moshiri, ChevronTexaco's top man for Latin America, told aides to Sen. Richard Lugar, a powerful Indiana Republican who suggested that the United States should reduce its oil dependence on Venezuela, that the U.S. energy relations with Venezuela ''had to be separated from political relations,'' one staffer recalled.

But Exxon Mobil has been critical of the new Venezuelan measures.

''Any time a government begins to exhibit characteristics of not wanting to honor contracts, that's going to cause you a lot of pause with respect to your enthusiasm for putting more money into that particular location,'' Roy Tillerson, the firm's president, told analysts in March.

This week the firm told the Associated Press that ''arbitration remains an option'' if Venezuela does not respect its original contract in its Cerro Negro heavy crude project, although the company would continue to press for a friendly solution.

Many are wondering how far Chávez will go.

Asked if Chávez could simply nationalize the foreign oil companies' assets in Venezuelan assets -- in effect seize the property -- Matthew Simmons, who runs a Houston investment bank specializing in energy, said he had no doubts.

''Oh yes,'' he said. ``In front of our eyes.''***

Using oil to spread revolution - CAFTA "a national-security vote" slows Chavista expansionism ***.............Fears that Venezuela would profit from its rejection was one reason why the Bush administration lobbied so hard for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), narrowly passed by the House of Representatives on July 27th (see article). Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, had called this “a national-security vote”.

All the same, Mr Chávez's successes are fragile ones. For one thing, it is hard to see what tangible benefits Venezuelans derive from this diplomacy. Mr Chávez has alienated both of his country's main trading partners, the United States and Colombia. Oil revenues are increasingly being spent without democratic scrutiny. A once-professional diplomatic service has been turned into a branch of the revolution, its dissidents either purged or neutralised. And although the alliance with Cuba has brought new social programmes, their cost and long-term benefits are hard to determine. Despite the oil boom, unemployment officially stands at 11%.

There are also limits to the region's tolerance of chavista expansionism. Only Cuba has signed up for ALBA. The richer Caribbean countries are unenthusiastic about Petrocaribe. Petrosur and Petroandina feature much rhetoric and little action. Cuba apart, no other country shares Mr Chávez's distaste for representative democracy, or his disdain for regional bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

In a setback for Mr Chávez, on July 27th the Inter-American Development Bank, the region's largest official lender, chose as its new president Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to Washington who was discreetly backed by Mr Bush. Mr Moreno easily defeated candidates from Brazil and Venezuela.

Argentine officials have welcomed imports of fuel from Venezuela, and its help in making contacts with China, but they are cooling towards Mr Chávez. Were evidence to emerge of his hand in Bolivia's turmoil, South America would become even warier. Should Lula's troubles deny him a second term, Brazil is likely to move to the centre-right, shifting the regional balance. The death of Mr Castro, who is 78 and frail, would be a body blow to Mr Chávez. So, of course, would a fall in oil prices.

A Summit of the Americas, involving 34 countries (all except Cuba), in Argentina in November should be a pointer to the prevailing diplomatic winds. The United States wants to stop the meeting becoming a platform for Mr Chávez. But if Mr Bush turns up empty-handed (CAFTA apart), Latin Americans will continue to pay court to that generous neighbour in Caracas.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No kidding.

They love to call him a "fire-brand."

[chatham]

Delahunt and Kennedy seem to be able to deal with the "Hate America" crowd very effectively.

If I remember correctly doesn't Kennedy get paid about $ 640,000.00 per year for this work.

Maybe if he took less money there would be more oil for the poor.

Delahunt doesn't do much else for the U.S.A. especially for proper Immigration on the Southern Border.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I know Bush should get better briefing on Chavez.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

As usual they're buying votes and all the better if they can praise a commie dictator for their benevolence.

[catpuppy]

Kennedy said Delahunt has been working with Chávez ''for years now and has gone down there many times and developed a personal relationship with him."

Democrats and Dictators. The love never stops.

[SheLion]

What about Maine and Tennessee? The two poorest states in the nation! How about them?

I just don't get this!

[Brilliant]

The pain of Chavez is going to eventually be felt in the pocketbooks by all Venezuelans, even the poor.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It already is.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[TheBattman]

Interesting math involved - 12 million gallons of home heating oil for $9 million- THEN-

A 200 gallon delivery will cost $276.....

75 cents per gallon cost

$1.38 to the consumer

So who is getting the just over 80% mark-up? IF this was really to "help the poor folks", then why such a high mark-up?


Just an interesting observation.

[sgtbono2002]

This is just one dictatorship helping out another. The Kennedy dictatorship of Massachusetts working with Venezuela.
Actually I didnt know Massachusetts had any poor people. Must be people too stupid to get a job on the "Big Dig".

Might I ask what qualifies one as being poor and how do they get this oil into the tanks of these poor after bypassing those who dont qualify? Who is the final Judge of who is poor and who isnt? Have they got an agency set up for this decision? Sounds like a job for someone.

[kindred]

And so many scoff at the idea of a one world order of nations ( to fulfill Christian prophecy) even as it is forming.

[Kolokotronis]

"To me this is the same as Cynthia McKinney grabbing for the $10M Saudi check after 9/11."

You really think so? The fact of the matter is that there is the very real possibility that people will freeze to death in the Northeast this winter because of stupid government regulations and the greed of an American oil industry which which has much of the Washington government and this administration on its payroll in one fashion or another!

I've heard all the arguments about democrats keeping a refinery out of the Northeast but that's just oil company/administration spin. There are major refineries in NJ and New Brunswick, right next door so to speak and yet the price of home heating oil is higher than the more highly refined and heavily taxed gasoline products!

Churchill said he'd make a pact with the devil if it meant beating Hitler. If this congressman's efforts with Chavez, an otherwise execrable creep, keep some poor people warm this winter, the only shame is on Washington which has allowed this situation to arise in the first place and an oil industry which took shameful advantage of wild speculation in an out of control free for all market in both crude and distillates! It is exactly the sort of pinched soul polemics and hyperbole you've demonstrated here which will drive people to vote for the democrats in the midterm elections!