Venezuela likely to offer free fuel to Alaskans again
Published Friday, November 28, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!A Venezuelan oil company has once again said it will provide 100 gallons of free heating fuel for thousands of Alaskans, according to an official with the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council.
But Steve Osborne, executive director for the tribal organization, cautioned that the gift wasn’t guaranteed.
Osborne got a call from Citgo executive Andres Rangel on Nov. 11, he said.
Rangel told Osborne the fuel help was coming. But the two sides haven’t signed a contract.
“I don’t want to raise false expectations,” Osborne said.
Still, a deal could be struck soon, he said.
A Citgo spokesman would not comment.
The assistance in Alaska began two years ago and is part of the oil company’s larger and controversial effort to provide subsidized heating fuel to poor communities in much of the country. Last year, the national program cost Citgo more than $147 million, according to news accounts.
Critics have blasted the donations as a political ploy by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — his government owns Citgo. They charge that he’s trying to embarrass the Bush administration for ignoring struggling Americans.
Many recipients in rural Alaska, where heating fuel prices double and triple the national average, have said they aren’t concerned about the gift’s political implications. They’re just happy for the help.
Last year alone, Citgo provided the aid to more than 15,000 homes in 160 Alaska Native communities, saving each household hundreds of dollars.
The assistance is needed more than ever this winter, Osborne said.
Though fuel prices have dropped sharply throughout the country and in Alaska’s urban areas, the state’s off-road villages haven’t benefited, he said. That’s because most villages bought their fuel this summer, when global prices soared. They won’t get a break until rivers melt and fuel barges begin arriving in late spring.
In the last year, some villages have seen fuel prices double, Osborne said.
Many rural Alaskans fork over more than $7 a gallon for heating fuel. Some have reported paying more than $9 a gallon.
Nationally, homeowners will pay an average of $2.75 a gallon for heating fuel this winter, a 17 percent drop from last winter, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In rural Alaska, the situation can be desperate. Two years ago, an elder in the Kotzebue region died in her home of exposure to the cold — the space heater wasn’t warm enough, Osborne said.
“We hear the tragic stories almost daily,” he said.
On the positive side, Citgo’s assistance has been put to good use, Osborne said. A survey conducted by AITC, which represents more than 200 tribes in Alaska, found that the fuel help freed up money, allowing people to spend more on other essentials, especially subsistence hunting and fishing.
This year, there’s been talk that Citgo might end the program in Alaska, in part because the Venezuelan government has been busy helping other countries recover from hurricanes.
Osborne said AITC is working hard to make sure the program continues in Alaska.
Shortly after he got the phone call, AITC asked the regional nonprofits that help administer the program to round up information that Citgo will need to provide the assistance, such as fuel prices in each village.
If the help does arrive — it will come in the form of vouchers that villagers redeem at local fuel distributors — residents will see the benefits by the coldest winter months, Osborne said.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
More good news for rural Alaska. Regardless of motive, whether it be political or altruistic empathy, at least it won't be politically hijacked by opportunistic urban Alaskans who just see an opportunity to get a free big screen tv or vacation in Hawaii.
Sick....just sick. Chavez lets his own people starve and live in plywood boxes while he pushes to send hundreds of millions overseas to make himself look good. Oh wait, that sounds incredibly familiar right here in our own country. Perhaps I should retract my first statement since it seems to be the Governmental way. Chavez is in bed with the Cubans, the Russians, and who knows who else and it is supposed to be ok for us to take fuel from companies in his control???
No thanks. I'd love a hundred gallons of free fuel, but not from Mr. Chavez or his buddies. Those strings stretch to people and places that we do not need having ANY kind of a mental or physical foothold in this country imo.
twodecades apparently does not live in bush Alaska. Apparently, he isn't looking to move into someone else's house to keep warm because they have to pool monies to keep one house warm.
Too bad the Alaskan legislature didn't work to extend the energy rebate more to the bush and less to southeast Alaska and Anchorage.
No Batman I do not live in the Bush and I feel for those struggling to make it in the towns of their and their anscestors birth.
What I am saying is that our own country should be taking care of its own people instead of accepting "donations" from world leaders in bed with communists who wish to dominate the world and who prey on our weak and greedy Governmental decisions in order to infiltrate our National psyche. If our Government was truly "for the People" we would not BE in the situation where our Native brothers and sisters have to freeze to death in their own homes while Corporate executives fly around in Gulfstream jets asking for their tax monies to pay for their stupidity. That is what I am saying.
I also agree that the "energy rebate" was handled poorly batman and ended up benefitting no one but the greedy oil refineries and retailers in the long run. A poorly thought out and administered program imo and I have said that ever since I found out that my 17 year old son was going to get one. His went to fuel in our tank and he did it gladly as he likes being warm, but it was foolishly administered money which should have been used in a much more reasonable way to assist those who actually needed it. Political greed plus ignorance and shortsightedness as usual.
burns me to know that every homless alcoholic crackhead gota extra 1200 bucks. you should at least have a home to be eligable for it.where do you sign up for the free oil.peace out
It makes me sick that we can get efficient delivery of free home heating oil to some remote, not easy to get to, places from a socialist govt many thousands of miles away, and our own govt (state and fed) can't even come close!! Our govts (state and fed) talk alot about being so anxious to provide help, yet their talk has not morphed into action. Citgo didn't talked about it, they DID it!
I don't live in the bush but if there just giving it away i'll take some,free is free.
Hey, don't you know that governments helping their poor is socialist?!?
Socialism's bad, m'kay?
Support your corporate banks instead!
Decrease the surplus population!
Corporations Good! Socialism Bad! Got it? Good! now be sure to eat your pellets and work in your cubicle... for the good of America!
twodecades - cheers to your 17 year old son, obviously not raised as a Gimme Kid like so many are nowadays.
that said, I don't care if it's a political move or not; if Chavez wants to give fuel to those who desperately need it, it would be unwise to reject the offer.
All concerns for our rural residents aside, Nothing is ever free wayuphere. I was taught MANY years ago that if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Smiling faces sometimes.."Beware of the handshake that holds the blade" and all of that.
I'm sure that if the offer comes through that it will be accepted and I won't blame a soul for it since the peons that hold OUR pursestrings have and are screwing it up so bad, but I WILL say watch your back for there may soon be a knife, gun, or missle pointed at it by those very people that they are now indirectly beholding to.
Time will tell.
Twodecades,
What are you talking about communist, thanks to Regan and the Bush's everything this country by comes from Communist China. The US is in bed up to our necks with communist since the republicans have outsource our economy to China.
This topic has got me thinking. Maybe this shouldn't just be all about us. How about the Venezuelans. How can we as Americans help poor Venezuelans? Maybe by setting an example of principal. Maybe by denying their dictator the victory of accepting his Trojan horse. Maybe by standing on principle for a change. The principle of self respect for ourselves and others.
In a roundabout way eyeQ that is what I was saying in my first post.
Sounds like Chavez is acting just like the United States. That's what we do too.
SOCIALISM no good democrats anyway......but Socialist Chavez we'll take all the free S**T we can get. It's not that you don't like Socialism, you just don't like AMERICAM socialism.......IDIOTS.
I get your point, twodecades - I am a contradiction in terms, anyway - a Democrat who believes in responsibility for self and family (call me a Robert Heinlein Dem!).
That said, whatever help our neighbors in the villages need, I hope they get - regardless of the source. It's hard to be political when you're cold or hungry.
By the way - a big high five to your kid! My daughter is a lot like that, and I'm very proud of her. You should be proud, as well.
angryalaskan
You nailed it. My previous post attempted to focus on the source of the offered help. When the USA presents foreign aid it is motivated by one of two goals: desperately needed humanitarian assistance or in order to influence a government or population to see us in a good light. In doing so we hope that they might aspire to our values such as democracy, free speech, freedom of religion etc. Totalitarianism usually starts with acts of good will with the perverse goal of obtaining complete control; the antithesis of individualism. An example being the former USSR and its command economy that ended in failure and an eventual move toward democracy and free markets economics. So all I'm saying is: "Consider the source" and its goals.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.