Chavez Playing Robin Hood With Venezuelan Oil

With home heating oil and natural gas prices expected to cost more than ever you would think that some of our national officials would try to do something about that. But with the Bush administration and it's Republican Congress more interested in cutting programs to help the poor and lowering taxes to the rich, there isn't much expected out of Washington.

But Venezelan President Hugo Chavez, who recently worked hard to kill CAFTA, is now working to help not only the poor of his own country, but the poor in the good old USA too. It seems Venezuela's nationalized oil business which own 6 refineries and 14,000 gasoline stations in the US, is going to sell home heating oil to America's poor in a number of cities for about $1.35 a gallon vs the average $2.25 a gallon currently.

The New York Daily News has the story that should shake up America's oil companies whose first reaction when they saw the disaster from Katrina was to raise prices. Instead of trying to find ways to help, America's oil companies found a way to kick people while they were down. Of course, they made record profits before backing off amid threats of federal sanctions.

Which raises the question, how can we privatize our oil businesses so the people can share in the profits like they do in Venezuela?