N.H. will accept free oil from Chavez after all

Source: Associated Press

N.H. will accept free oil from Chavez after all
By NORMA LOVE – 26 minutes ago

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.

With the state's blessing, New Hampshire residents will be receiving some of the fuel this winter.

New Hampshire becomes the last state in the Northeast to embrace the offer.

"A lot of people have said, `We need help and we value any help we can get,'" said Amy Ignatius, director of New Hampshire's office of energy and planning.

The oil giveaway will be managed by Citizens Energy, a nonprofit organization set up by former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy to help the poor stay warm. But the state energy office plans to help Citizens publicize the aid and sign up fuel-oil dealers.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnztbxuaqQbgWUxdiecoWmeZwMhQD920E39G9

What if his socialism spreads.....?!

When the big oil companies like Enron, Shell, etc, will be helping out the poor in our country like Chavez is doing? I mean our own greedy oil barons must have a heart, they must feel for the poor people they are shafting with their high prices, right?:shrug: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

went to U.S. oil companies and begged them for discouted oil prices through the harshest part of the winter for their needy constituents, and they were totally blown off, and sent packing. That happened before they ever went for help outside the country.

Here's an article which was written in April this year, before this decision was made by New Hampshire's Republican tool Sununu:

Friday, April 11, 2008
As U.S. heating aid drops, Venezuela chips in
By Vicki Ekstrom, Special to Stateline.org



~snip~
With crude oil hitting a record of $112 a barrel, compared to $60 in 2005, U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) appealed to oil companies to help low-income families with their heating bills in a March 31 letter to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

API rejected a similar plea in 2005, saying companies already paid high taxes. The request came as executives from the top five oil companies – ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips – testified April 2 at a U.S. House hearing on oil prices and company profits. The companies are fighting to keep an $18 billion tax break that the House has voted to shift towards renewable energy incentives; the Senate has not acted on the legislation.

Kennedy of Citizens Energy has requested support from major oil companies for low-income households each year, but so far Citgo is the only company to respond.

Hennessey, of Southern New Hampshire Services, questions why free oil from Venezuela is politically sensitive when the United States already relies on Venezuela for much of its oil. Venezuela is the fifth largest source of U.S. oil imports, supplying more than 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“Less than one half of 1 percent of all the oil exported from Venezuela to the U.S. is donated to help almost 200,000 poor households make it through the cold winter months,” Ashley Durmer, spokeswoman for Citizens Energy, said in an interview. “If there's something wrong with the poor getting a tiny fraction of the 500 million barrels of oil imported from Venezuela, then a consistent standard ought to be applied to the other 99.5 percent of the Venezuelan oil that is bought and used each day in this country.”

While New Hampshire does not officially participate in the program, some of its residents who are aware of Citizens Energy, qualify for LIHEAP funding and live near participating oil distributors were able to benefit this winter, said Amy Ignatius, director of the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning. The oil dealers in New Hampshire that distributed the free oil through Citizens Energy participate through neighboring states.

Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin, plus Washington, D.C., and Indian tribes in 7 other states participated in this winter’s Citizens Energy program.

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=299079

...to American consumers - All said 'No'

does not make him anything other than an oil pimp. He said oil should be be $300 a bbl, he has called for higher prices.

He is not the baby jesus.

and I especially :loveya: his latest commercial last winter. The copy went something like this:

"A lot of people say we're wrong to accept free oil from Venezuela. They think it's ok to PAY for oil from Venezuela..."

:rofl:

He goes on to say he asked EVERY major oil company in the U.S. to help the poor and they ALL turned him down. Except Citgo.


Hey, Joe...:yourock: totallyl!

to participate, who are only here to take everyone's money, plain and simple, as much as quickly and slickly as possible.

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070620/070620_kennedy_hmed_4p.hmedium.jpg

William Delahunt was active, also, in getting this
oil deal set up for Massachusetts poor and elderly citizens.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/41096000/jpg/_41096280_oil.jpg

Rep.Serrano was in it
for more than photo ops,
getting oil for the Bronx.

Thanks for mentioning that commercial is out so we'll be sure to look for it!

The cost will come environmentally.

That's why as long as there is a single poor person in the world, our environmental impact will go up. That's why as long as there is a single wealthy person in the world, our environmental impact will go up. That's why as long as there is the middle class, which by definition requires upper and lower classes, is chasing the wealthy class and trying to fight for the lower class, our environmental impact will go up.

it to let them freeze? I know what you are saying, but until alternatives are available, there are a lot of poor people that will need that oil.

/TimeBandits

(and I haven't read the article yet) but i can say this is needed.

Gas prices are nothing compared to heating oil. I pay $60+ to fill up my car, and it's a Saab, not a SUV or Hummer, but the need to go driving can be controlled a bit. Most houses up here heat with oil, and a standard tank is 275 gallons, and you'd go 3 or 4 tanks during a season. That's now a couple of thousand dollars.

It hurts me, but I am fortunate enough to have the income to deal with it (although it doesn't leave anything left over) but for many homeowners, it's a death knell, and you can't NOT heat, because your kids will freeze, or at least your pipes will, and lots of people, including the newly-unemployed in the new Bush economy, will need home heating assistance.

NH recently applied for 9 BILLION dollars additional assitance (up from something like 1.6 billion). People in many rural states, with unemployment, or even with employment and just tight budgets, are going to be screwed big-time. Driving the frickin' car is the least of it.

have told--and are still telling--about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela.

There are several in this article:

"pro-Castro": What does this mean? "Pro-communist"? Neither Chavez nor the 63% of Venezuelan voters who re-elected him in 2006 are "communists." "Pro-dictatorship"? That has been totally debunked. Chavez is a democrat with a small d. The evidence for this is overwhelming. (Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, recently said: "You can criticize Chavez on a lot of things--but not on democracy.") How about "pro-universal health care"? Yup, Chavez is for that. "Pro-free universal education through college?" Yup. The thing is that Chavez, like most South American leaders today, are discriminating in what they see of value in Cuba, and what they don't want to imitate. Discriminating, intelligent, able to think for themselves. Chavez is friends with Castro. So are a number of other South American leaders. Why shouldn't they be? The rest of the world has long recognized, and traded with, Cuba. It's time we grew up. Asinine phrases like "pro-Castro" promote ignorance and stupidity. That is AP's purpose--to promote kneejerk ignorance and stupidity.

"U.S. critic": Not exactly. Bush critic. Exxon Mobil critic. Critic of imperialism and neo-liberalism. Critic of U.S.-dominated "free trade." Critic of the Iraq War. Chavez has never said one word against the people of the United States. Are we equivalent to Bush, Exxon Mobil, imperialism, neo-liberalism, U.S.-dominated "free trade" and heinous, genocidal aggression? No, these forces have taken us over, and these things have been done, against the will of the majority. That's why Chavez makes a distinction between us and the corporate junta that rules over us--and offers free or low cost heating oil to our poor, and also, recently, a free distribution of energy-saving lightbulbs. Because the fuckwads who are running things will never do that. It is a goodwill gesture toward us.

"...who once called President Bush 'the devil'": And was he wrong? When Rafael Correa (president of Ecuador) was asked what he thought of this Chavez remark to the UN, during Correa's campaign for president, Correa replied that "it is an insult to the devil." (His numbers soared, by the way, and he won the election with 60% of the vote.) Most South Americans pretty much feel this way. But whatever anyone thinks of this remark, it is another ignorance-making, stupid-making Associated Pukes effort to deny us accurate, intelligent, complete information about Hugo Chavez, Venezuela and the awesome, peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution in South America, of which he is a part.

If AP described George Bush in a similar way, it would have to read something like this: "After two years of SEVENTY PERCENT opposition to the Iraq War by the American people, the pro-Saudi, U.S. president, George Bush, who once lied about Saddam Hussein's WMDs, to lead the country into an unjust war for oil, once again refused to provide the American people any relief from gas gouging by his oil corporation sponsors."

Of course, hell will freeze over before AP gives Bush "the treatment." Is that all there is to say about Bush and his...ahem, regime? No, there's more. He has stolen two elections and shredded our Constitution. He has tortured prisoners. He has repeatedly given tax cuts to the very rich, and run up a $10 TRILLION deficit. He is spying on everyone in the country. And his war profiteer buds have looted the federal treasury.

What has Hugo Chavez done? Nothing but good, if the truth were known. There is NOTHING that AP can cite against him, so they repeat that he called Bush "the devil" two years ago, and call him "pro-Castro" when he is also pro-Evo Morales (first indigenous president of Bolivia, a largely indigenous country; duly elected; a Chavez ally), pro-Lula da Silva (president of Brazil; duly elected; Chavez's strongest ally in South America); pro-Rafael Correa (immensely popular president of Ecuador, duly elected; Chavez ally); pro-Daniel Ortega (duly elected president of Nicaragua; Chavez ally); pro-Cristina Fernandez (newly and duly elected president of Argentina; Chavez ally); pro-Fernando Lugo (just elected president of Paraguay, first leftist president in 61 years; just met with Chavez, sympathetic to his social justice goals).

Chavez is, in fact, pro-democracy--very pro-democracy. Why single out his friendship with Castro? What does that have to do with anything--except that the folks in New Hampshire have finally awakened from the drugged stupor of AP propaganda?

I often wonder if Chavez will try to be the highest bidder! AT least Chavez is offering free help, and although it is partly just raspberries to Captain Numbnutz, it is a beautiful thing to embrace.

I don't know what to think, but doom'n'gloomers can shove a carrot where the fertilizer is made fresh daily.

Saturday, July 19, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
New Hampshire to take Chávez oil offer
Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called...

By NORMA LOVE
The Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. — Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.

With the state's blessing, New Hampshire residents will be receiving some of the fuel this winter.

New Hampshire becomes the last state in the Northeast to embrace the offer.

"A lot of people have said, 'We need help, and we value any help we can get,' " said Amy Ignatius, director of New Hampshire's Office of Energy and Planning.

The oil giveaway will be managed by Citizens Energy, a nonprofit organization set up by former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy to help the poor. But the state energy office plans to help Citizens publicize the aid and sign up fuel-oil dealers.

Back in 2006, when Chávez began offering free oil to Americans from Venezuela's government-controlled Citgo, New Hampshire's energy office contacted the Venezuelan Embassy about working out a deal.

But the idea galled some New Hampshire Republicans, including Sen. John Sununu, who called it a "disgrace" and an attempt at grandstanding by Chávez, and Democratic Gov. John Lynch squelched the effort.

But a lot has changed over the past two years. Back then, heating oil sold for about $2.50 per gallon in the Northeast. Last month, the average price was $4.61, with predictions of $5 per gallon oil by winter.

"The average tank is 250 to 275 gallons," Citizens spokeswoman Ashley Durmer said. "Filling it once is over $1,500. That is unfathomable that anyone can pay that price. If you have to fill the tank four times, it's going to be a devastating winter for a lot of people."

More:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008060734_chavezoil19.html?syndication=rss

The US could learn a few things from Chavez (or at least his people) when comes to winning hearts and minds of a population.