Saturday, February 25, 2006

Cheap oil and cheap shots

Reader Catherine urges me to write about the Congression inquiry into the latest threat to the United States capitalism -- the Venezuelan government's offering cheap(er) oil to poor Americans. Democracy Now! had a segment on it this morning, but I found the original AP article from a week ago even more interesting. It starts by telling us:
The House Energy chairman said Thursday he suspects politics, not charity, is behind the Venezeulan offer to provide cheap heating oil to poor Americans.
Really? Ya' think? And, after all, politics (or charity) are so much more threatening than pure capitalist greed, which is what drives Exxon and the rest of the oil companies.
The best line in the article is this:
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the subcommittee for oversight and investigations...are concerned the oil deals are "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy toward" the United States.
And what could be more "unfriendly," "belligerent," or "hostile" than offering cheap(er) oil to poor Americans?
"Given President Chavez's clear anti-American sentiments, his current efforts must be viewed with concern that he is attempting to politicize the debate over U.S. energy policy," Barton and Whitfield wrote.
Absolutely. Because if it weren't for Hugo Chavez, there wouldn't be the slightest hint of politics in the debate over U.S. energy policy.
Indeed, the only thing more astonishing than the nonsense (and potentially dangerous nonsense) coming from Barton and Whitfield's mouths is the almost deafening silence on this outrage from any commentators or editorial writers. One of the only comments on this subject (the subject of Venezuelan oil, that is; I couldn't find any on this Congressional "inquiry") I could find was this from the Hartford Courant, who start with this back-handed endorsement of Venezuela's actions:
So long as Congress keeps holding up federal funds for energy assistance to low-income households, Connecticut officials have every right to consider CITGO Petroleum Corp.'s offer of cheap heating oil.
So, if I have this right, they don't have "every right" to consider the offer if Congress provides federal funds for energy assistance? What kind of logic is that? Considering that the average assistance offered by the government when funds are available is less than the price of a single tank of oil, it would seem that 60% discounted oil from Venezuela would be synergistic with federal assistance, and not at all a substitute for it.
And how's this for a curious statement:
The price of CITGO's oil may be discounted, but it does carry an extra political cost. Although Venezuela is already a big supplier of oil to the United States, the leftist Mr. Chavez, a frequent critic of President Bush, is accused of coming up with the low-cost heating oil program to embarrass the White House.
Since when is it the job of anyone except George Bush and Karl Rove and Karen Hughes to be concerned about whether something will "embarrass the White House"? A "political cost" to George Bush is not the same as a political cost to the United States (not that even the latter would justify denying poor Americans any help they can get from any source whatsoever).
The Courant editorial does provide some interesting backstory:
On Capitol Hill, however, Republican senators seem to be doing a good job of embarrassing themselves. With a dozen states in the Northeast and Midwest already out of federal heating assistance (Connecticut is due to run out next month), Congress adjourned for the Presidents' Day recess without replenishing the fund.

The roots for this stalemate go back to December when GOP senators (led by Alaska's Ted Stevens) tried to sneak through a controversial measure allowing drilling for oil and gas in the protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. When the strategy failed, they retaliated against their Northeastern colleagues by stripping away a provision for $2 billion in energy assistance.
$2 billion, by the way, is less than the amount that my one county, Santa Clara County, has already paid to wage war against the people of Iraq. I wonder if Mssrs. Barton and Whitfield are planning an inquiry into that scandal.