BuckyB93 wrote:Maybe Joe Kennedy II can step in and smooth things over by dusting off and starting up a new Joe-4-Oil campaign. You know, the one where he teamed up with Chavez to get oil donations for his non-profit charity.
He and his wife probably miss their six figure salaries they got from running this heating oil for the poor program.
Citizens Energy (since 1999)
Overview
After leaving the U.S. House, Kennedy returned to Citizens Energy. (During Kennedy's terms in the U.S. House, it had been run by his brother Michael.) Citizens Energy pursues commercial ventures aimed at generating revenues that, in turn, are used to generate funds that could assist those in need in the U.S. and abroad.[33] It grew to encompass seven separate companies, including one of the largest energy-conservation firms in the U.S. Citizens Energy became one of the U.S.'s first energy firms to move large volumes of natural gas to more than thirty states.[34][verification needed] As a precursor to market changes under electricity deregulation in the late 1990s, Citizens Energy was a pioneer in moving and marketing electrical power over the power grid.[35][36] In recent years, Kennedy has led the company into the renewable-energy industry, building solar farms along the East Coast[37] and transmission lines[38] to support charitable programs like one giving free solar panels to low-income families in California.[39]
Public policy
Since 1979, Citizens Energy has provided affordable heating oil to low-income families in Massachusetts and other cold-weather states.[40] These charitable efforts were funded largely from profitable commercial ventures and donations.[41]
Since returning to Citizens Energy, Kennedy also has sought to influence energy-related public policy, challenging the Bush administration to invest in energy conservation and efficiency and renewable energy,[42] encouraging Congress to fully fund federal heating assistance programs,[43] proposing that oil-consuming countries work together to balance oil prices against Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) manipulation,[44] and calling for the federal government and major oil companies to use portions of royalties from oil and gas extracted from federal lands and waters to help low-income families with the high price of energy.[45] Kennedy has been criticized for the salaries paid to himself and his wife.[46] In 2012, as CEO of Citizens Energy and related organizations, Kennedy was paid a total of $796,000 in compensation, and his wife was paid an additional $344,000 as Director of Marketing.[47]
Venezuela
Beginning in 2005, Citgo Petroleum Company (Citgo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)—the Venezuelan state-owned oil company—has been the primary donor of heating oil to Citizens Energy. The Wall Street Journal and others criticized Citizens Energy for continuing its relationship with the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, a harsh critic of the United States.[48][49][50] In response, Kennedy and others[51][52] have argued that it is hypocritical to criticize a non-profit organization for accepting oil from Venezuela while numerous other American businesses are profiting from robust trade with Venezuela and at a time when the U.S. government has cut low-income fuel assistance.[53]
Although Citgo donations reportedly dried up in 2015 owing to Venezuela's economic turmoil,[54] the company was reported in 2009 to have donated 83 million gallons of oil over the two previous years, which was used to provide heating assistance to an estimated 200,000 families a year in 23 states.[55]
Kennedy has since turned into a critic of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the handpicked successor of Chávez,[56] accusing him of "stealing democracy from the people" and calling for Maduro's removal.[57]
