Pigs At The Trough: Joe Barton's War on CITGO, Andrew Bosworth
Feb. 25, 2006
http://www.bushwatch.net/bush.htm#citgo

There is a powerful Texas Congressman, Joe Barton, who does not like
Venezuela' s CITGO providing discount gas to America' s poor. Joe Barton
is Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and he is demanding
that Felix Rodriguez (President of CITGO) reveal details about
discounted heating oil. This program was initiated by Venezuela's
President Hugo Chavez in 2005.

In Barton' s own words: "What we are opposed to and concerned about
is...an oil company that's nationalized, that' s owned by a government,
and that government is controlled by an individual like Mr. Chavez of
Venezuela and that they use their oil for political purposes. ... It
does appear that the president of Venezuela is using it for political
purposes in the United States..." This is not the first time Joe Barton
has badgered people over documents, hoping to find compromising
information. In 2005, Barton challenged scientists measuring global
warming, insisting that they list "all financial support you have
received related to your research." Barton, you see, is skeptical of
global warming even though the North Pole is melting quickly. It might
be more accurate to say that the top industries supporting Joe Barton' s
most recent election included electric utilities and oil and gas.

Of course, Joe Barton is a complicated man. After the Katrina hurricane,
Barton told Mississippi's Governor that "Whatever you need from the
federal government... we'll do everything we can to make it happen
sooner rather than later and bigger rather than smaller." Then, Barton
was one of only 11 House members to vote AGAINST the Hurricane Katrina
Emergency Relief bill! The next day! Barton claimed to have voted
against Katrina relief because there was little oversight of the
spending. But in 2002, Barton inserted provisions in the energy bill to
allow Westar Energy, a near-bankrupt company, to increase rates to cover
the company' s non-utility debt.

Barton, a close ally of now-disgraced Congressman Tom DeLay (under
indictment), is also a champion of the tobacco industry: "Our founding
fathers, many of them grew tobaccoâ! If they knew we were trying to
regulate one of the first cash crops that made our nation independent, I
don't think they would appreciate that." Barton's war on CITGO
demonstrates that Congress has been sold to the highest bidder. Arianna
Huffington, in Pigs at the Trough, put it well. "The sad truth is that
weâ ve produced a mandarin class in this country; a special breed of
swine that feeds on the handouts from corporate America and in turn does
its bidding in the corridors of power." ++


Venezuelan-Owned Citgo Faces Congressional Inquiry For Offering
Discounted Oil to U.S. Poor
Friday, February 24th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/24/1513213&mode=thread&tid=25
[...]
In Washington, Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas has launched
an investigation into one of the world's major oil companies. But he is
not investigating whether any of the oil giants are engaging in price
gouging at a time when gasoline and heating oil casts are skyrocketing.
Instead Barton has set his sights on the only oil company that actually
dared to lower its prices last year - at least for the poorest
Americans. Last week Barton demanded the Venezuelan-owned company Citgo
produce all records, minutes, logs, e-mails and even desk calendars
related to the company's novel program of supplying discounted heating
oil to low-income communities in the United States. The Citgo program,
which began late last year in Massachusetts and the South Bronx,
provides oil at discounts as high as 60% off market price. We hear an
excerpt of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He first announced the
discounted gas program during an interview with Democracy Now! on
September 16, 2005.

AMY GOODMAN: To discuss this, we'll be joined in a few minutes by New
York Congress member Jose Serrano, but first we're going to turn to
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He first announced the discounted gas
program during an interview on Democracy Now! when we went to the
Venezuelan ambassador's home, the ambassador to the United Nations in
New York, and interviewed the Venezuelan President.

PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: After many meetings with the U.S. citizens, we
decided to propose a scheme for poor populations and low-income
populations in the U.S. We've seen that poverty in the U.S. is growing
everywhere. It's close to 11 percent poverty, according to some
estimates. And instead of the figures, you have to go deeper into it,
because if you see Katrina and you saw what's happened, 100,000 people
were abandoned, and they are abandoned, and they're just surviving.

So here, we have Citgo, this oil company. We have the Citgo company
here in the United States. This is a Venezuelan company, so let's have a
look at the U.S. map, the distribution area of Citgo in the U.S. We are
present in 14,000 gas stations in the U.S., and here we have different
refineries, asphalt refineries, eight refineries that we have in the
U.S., the plants for filling units, the third, refineries, terminals,
and so on.

We want to use these infrastructures to help the poor populations. We
have made some progress. We have given instructions to the President of
Citgo, Felix Rodriguez. We want that up to ten percent we refine here.
We supply every day to the U.S. 1.5 million barrels of oil, crude and
product, and we refine here close to 800,000 barrels a day, refined here
in the U.S., so we would like to take ten percent of what we refine,
those products, and to offer these products in several modalities to the
poor populations.

And the pilot project will be starting in Chicago. We are already
operating in Chicago. Well, let's hope that there's not going to be any
obstacle by the government opposed to this project being implemented,
but we will be working in those poor populations. We have some allies.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaking to
Democracy Now! last September, when Juan and I interviewed him. Now,
joining us on the telephone is Democratic Congress member Jose Serrano
of New York. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Congress member Serrano.

REP. JOSE SERRANO: Thank you for your invitation, and good morning to
you both.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what Joe Barton, the energy Congress member
from Texas is doing? What is he calling for?

REP. JOSE SERRANO: I think they're being obscene. There's no other way
to describe it. I mean, for years, we've begged Congress to look at the
oil companies, and now I may have to put on my resume that with a
program that helps the poor, we've been able to get Congress to finally
look at a oil company, except that they're looking at the wrong one and
for the wrong reasons. This is blatantly political to ask if the program
is here to serve the poor or it's part of a larger political agenda,
which was part of what the letter said. I think what's happening -- and
it's obvious to me -- that the oil companies are embarrassed, and they
are asking their friends in Congress, mostly Republicans.

And as you guys know, I try, when I'm on this show, to be as
nonpolitical as possible, but there's no other way to put it. The Bush
administration has a serious problem with President Hugo Chavez. They
don't like the success he's having, both in his country and throughout
Latin America. They don't like what's happening in terms of governments
moving to the left. So they've made him the demon that they have to
destroy, and now when he pulls off something that is helping people in
my community in Boston, Chicago, in Maine and Vermont and other places,
Rhode Island, it's spreading throughout the country, they're going to
now start to investigate and harass them, and that's what it's all
about.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I called Congressman Joe Barton's office earlier
this week to ask what prompted this, and the response of the Chief of
Staff of the House Energy Committee was that Hugo Chavez was interfering
in U.S. -- in the United States government oil policy, and that
therefore they wanted to investigate whether there was actually some
antitrust violations occurring. Your response?

REP. JOSE SERRANO: Well, I think the only thing he is interfering in in
Citgo is in the usual rip-off of the poor and the working class by the
oil companies in this country. As you know, their profits have been
outrageous, and no one is looking at that. They were asked by members of
the Senate to do something. They totally ignored it. Citgo was the only
one that stepped up.

And I think this goes into some dangerous grounds here, because, for
instance, when they ask for logs, phone conversations and so on, which
they're asking voluntarily now -- and they may go and try to do it in an
official subpoena way -- what are they saying, that they also want
minutes of any meetings that I had with Citgo, that Joe Kennedy had with
Citgo, that Bernie Sanders had with Citgo, and other members of
Congress, Charlie Rangel, Gregory Meeks? Well, that goes into a
dangerous area, because they're not investigating serious ethics
violations in Congress, and here they're going to try find out what kind
of conversations we had, but the conversations are public. They were
basically a great program that we were all trying to get in our
communities.

And I tell you, with all due respect to my colleagues -- I am not going
to give out names -- but if I give you the list of about 60 members of
Congress from all parts of the country who are asking me, "Can I set up
a meeting with Citgo?" to see if they can get this kind of program in
their district.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now Congressman Joe Barton, of course, has a long record
of defending oil industry interests, at least of the major oil
companies, in Congress. He's also, as I noted in my column, in the last
election cycle, received more money than anyone else in Congress, except
Tom DeLay, from the oil industry and has received over $2 million in the
20 years he's been in Congress from the oil and electric utility
industry. Your assessment of his role as Chair of the Energy Committee?

AMY GOODMAN: And we should say, by the way, we did invite Congressman
Barton to be on the program, and he declined.

REP. JOSE SERRANO: Well, you know, I don't do too much analysis of where
folks may get their campaign contributions, because in many cases, it
doesn't sway in any way, but what is bad here is that it doesn't -- you
don't have to really do too much analysis to realize that Katrina, that
the oil crises this summer -- this winter -- that all the things that
could be looked at, in terms of the oil companies in this country, are
not being looked at.

And then, this whole gripe with President Chavez and following on the
heels of Condoleezza Rice, once again, trying to undo what Chavez is
doing in Latin America, by now suggesting that she's going to go -- and
she said this publicly on behalf of the administration -- to different
countries in Latin America to try to create a front against Hugo Chavez.
Well, this is what just sticks out as a sore thumb. It's sickening. So
I'd rather just continue to look at why -- how, not why, we know why --
but how can the Republicans get away with singling out one oil company
and not looking at their profits, interestingly enough, not looking at
how much they've been charging Americans, but looking at why they
discounted their oil up to 60%, as you said, and why are they giving
help to the poor? I mean, it's ridiculous.

And I think this time it may backfire because it's not just the South
Bronx or eventually Harlem or East Harlem. It's the home-owner
communities composed of working class and senior citizens, white folks
throughout this country, who are benefiting from this program. And
they're
going to scratch their head and say, "I don't get it. Why are you going
after these guys and not the other guys?" ++



What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand
up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does.
Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of democracy
will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers

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