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Venezuelan firm will buy fuel oil for Alaskan villagers
A Venezuelan-owned oil company will warm 12,000 rural Alaska homes this winter with an enormous gift of heating fuel that some elated residents in the Bush call a godsend -- and ironic. The donation from Houston-based Citgo will buy 100 gallons of fuel for every household in 151 villages. But the gift worth roughly $5 million comes courtesy of a country whose leftist president is pals with America's enemies and supports Iran's nuclear ambitions. Hugo Chavez also calls our president mean things, such as "genocidal murderer" and "madman." And don't forget "the Devil" at the UN, the sacred diplomatic forum of the family of nations, the United Nations. Margaret Williams of Hughes in the Interior said it doesn't matter who's providing the heating fuel, which costs about $6 a gallon in the Koyukuk River village of 69. "We sure could welcome it," she said. "As long as we don't have to pay." In the Kobuk River village of Ambler, heating fuel is running more than $7 a gallon. Residents in the village of 283 and surrounding villages are ecstatic, said tribal administrator Virginia Commack. "It's a miracle," she said. Each household will save more than $700 in fuel costs this winter, freeing cash for people to spend on gasoline so they can hunt more caribou and moose, she said. The donation will especially help the elderly, who live on fixed incomes and can't travel to gather wood, she said. Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-09-21 |
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