March 3, 2006
Connecticut Latest State to Accept Venezuelan Oil

(Venezuelanalysis.com) - "Residents of Connecticut become the latest northeasterners to receive discounted heating oil from the Venezuelan owned oil company Citgo, after the state's attorney general dismissed questions by the state governor that the program might be illegal.

Record crude oil prices in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita contributed to the increase in heating oil prices. According to the US Department of Energy, 8.1 million of the country's 103 million households use heating oil as their main heating fuel. Of these, 82 percent are in New England and the Central Atlantic States.

But the deals brokered, which in most cases give eligible low-income houses a 40 percent break on their heating bills, have not come without controversy (...)

Republican Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, for instance, raised questions to her state's Attorney General, asking him to address the "legality of the state of Connecticut sanctioning participation in [the] program."

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut 's Attorney General, responded that the program was 'consistent with Connecticut'slaws´ (...)".