Lee News Service

By JODI RAVEBy JODI RAVE

With more than a month of winter heating bills ahead, a private donation from a Venezuelan oil giant is helping thousands of U.S. citizens pay their heating bills, including 163 tribes.

Montana and South Dakota tribes received more than $1 million this week from CITGO Petroleum Corp., just as many low-income families on the Cheyenne River Reservation had been feeling the pinch of heating assistance program funds, which ran out in October.

"Since then, people have had to make do," Margaret Bad Warrior, a tribal attorney for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in Eagle Butte, S.D., said on Friday. "People have heated their home with dryers. A lot of children have been ill because of cold homes. Tribal programs haven't had heat."

CITGO-Venezuela's discounted fuel-heating program is helping more than 400,000 households in 16 states. The program was expanded this year after fuel recipients from last year met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and requested additional help.

"We are more than just an oil company," said Felix Rodriguez, CITGO president and CEO. "We are neighbors and friends who care for those in need. This is a people-to-people program that comes from the heart of Venezuela to the homes of American families who just can't pay their energy bills."

CITGO, owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, the Venezuelan national oil company, has designated Citizens Energy Corp., a Boston-based nonprofit, to run the household delivery program, which was formed in 1979 by former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. His organization has been assisting the poor and elderly with heating oil for more than 25 years.

"We approached every major oil company and every OPEC nation last year to ask that a small slice of their record profits go to help the poor," said Kennedy. "Only one oil company - CITGO - and only one nation - Venezuela - stepped up to the plate to offer a helping hand."

Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., has criticized Citizens Energy for accepting the Venezuelan charity, given Chavez's recent United Nations remarks equating President Bush to "the devil."

More than 150 Alaskan tribes have benefited this year from the fuel program. Seven Montana tribes, including 980 families on the Flathead Reservation, also will feel relief from the cold.

"Our gratitude is so hard to express because it's so profound," said Teresa Wall-McDonald, a policy analyst for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on Montana's Flathead Reservation, where eligible family households will receive $259 in extra assistance.

The energy assistance fuel season runs from Nov. 1 to March 31. "Some families on the rez had used their entire fuel allocation by Nov. 15 because of the high cost of propane, oil and electricity," said Wall-McDonald. "The funds will give families a boost from costs that are out of control."

Tribes' cash donation from CITGO will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the federal government under guidelines for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP.

Wall-McDonald said she received a letter on Friday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "They were congratulating the collective efforts of the tribes," she said. "So each tribe next year will get additional energy assistance funds."

(Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 406-523-5299 or jodi.rave@;missoulian.com. On the Web: www.progressive.org/mag_intv0706 or www.citizensenergy.com or www.citgo.com.)