Big Oil’s Big Friends

It’s all about priorities for some members of Congress when it comes to treating America’s “addiction to oil.”

As reported by columnist Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News, Congressman Joe Barton (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has launched a probe into possible antitrust violations by Citgo. Could it be related to accusations of price gouging by ExxonMobil, Chevron or other oil giants?

“No, the good congressman has set his sights on the only oil company that actually dared to lower its prices last year - at least for the poorest Americans.”

“In a Feb. 15 letter to Citgo, the Houston-based company owned by the Venezuelan government, Barton demanded that company officials produce by tomorrow all records, minutes, logs, e-mails and even desk calendars related to Citgo’s novel program of supplying discounted heating oil to low-income communities in the United States.”
Why the animosity against Citgo? Because it’s promoted by Hugo Chavez, the populist president of Venezuela and outspoken critic of the Bush administration.

“The bellicose Venezuelan decided to meddle in American energy policy, and we think it might prove instructive to know how,” Larry Neal, deputy staff director for Barton’s committee, said yesterday.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 3:30 pm and is filed under International, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.