WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has added a seventh U.S. state to the ranks of his oil-for-poor charity, sending million of gallons of discount crude to Connecticut this week.
The decision follows comments earlier this week by Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramírez who said his country could move its oil exports away from the United States toward other nations such as China.
Venezuela, the only non-Middle Eastern member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and supplies the United States more than 10 percent of its oil imports. Such supply concerns in Venezuela and elsewhere have boosted oil prices to above $60 a barrel, adding increased funds to Chavez's coffers.
The recent rash of donations from oil-rich Venezuela -- now rife with oil cash -- has provoked the ire of some U.S. lawmakers and prompted one to initiate an investigation into the gesture.
Some are calling it an effort to embarrass the Bush administration, which in recent months has ratcheted up its criticism of Chavez, calling him an unsettling force in the region.
Connecticut joined the Bronx, N.Y., Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Vermont in receiving 4.8 million gallons of heating oil at a 40 percent discount for poor households. Chavez has also ordered that free fuel be given to homeless shelters in those states.
The recipients of the leftist leader's gesture must qualify for state assistance in heating their homes this winter in order to be eligible for a share of the Chavez-mandated shipment.
Leaders in Connecticut, like many in the other states where poor Americans might suffer the cold this winter, praised Venezuela for its generosity and made a point of stressing its necessity and compliance with U.S. laws.
"This heating oil assistance fills an unfortunate, profoundly important need for our citizens -- and is consistent with our laws," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement this week.
Other leaders don't see it that way, however.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, has publicly questioned whether the donations are "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy."
Barton has ordered an investigation into Venezuelan-owned oil company Citgo, which is based in Houston, and demand that the company hand over all paperwork, e-mail and material related to the donation program to U.S. officials for inspection.
A letter drafted by Barton's office asks Citgo to answer numerous questions relating to the donations ,including "how and why were the particular beneficiaries of this program selected" and if the program "runs afoul of any U.S. laws, including but not limited to, antitrust laws."
"The bellicose Venezuelan (Chavez) decided to meddle in American energy policy, and we think it might prove instructive to know how," said Larry Neal, deputy staff director for Barton's committee, last week.
Lawmakers in favor of the donations questioned Barton's motivation for condemning the donations, as the Texas congressman has been a beneficiary of large campaign contributions from U.S. energy companies.
"The Republicans are on another planet when it comes to energy policy," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the New York Daily News reported last week.
Markey also stressed his disbelief that Barton and other Republicans would investigate "a charitable donation of heating oil to relieve the suffering of a few thousand American families."
Peter Deshazo, Americas director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Chavez's professed altruism in the form of cheap oil for the poor is nothing more than a "public relations gesture to guild the Chavez image."
It also could be an effort, said some experts, by Chavez to embarrass the Bush administration while improving his own global image at the same time.
"Chavez says he likes the United States, but doesn't like the [Bush] administration," noted Deshazo, who was also a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Washington and Caracas steadily increased tensions in 2005 and continue to provoke one another this year.
The Bush administration accuses Chavez of trying to create a Cuba-style regime at home. The outspoken Venezuelan has in turn complained that Washington is trying to undermine his authority and is aiding those seeking his ouster.
A short-lived coup in April 2002 saw Chavez briefly removed from office, only to return to power two days later. The Venezuelan president accused the United States of aiding the country's opposition, an allegation the Bush administration denied.
Since then officials in the Bush administration, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have said Chavez could become a catalyst for unrest in the region.
Earlier this month, Chavez ordered the expulsion of a U.S. naval attaché working at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas after it was discovered that several Venezuelan military officers were leaking information to American diplomat.
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