By Winona LaDuke
We owe Venezuela a debt. I remember when Venezuela paid our energy bills right after Hurricane Katrina and US refinery capacity was down. Oil prices skyrocketed, it was a hard winter, and the oil companies were making huge profits while many Americans experienced real hardships. Congress asked if they would give the American people a break on pricing. That didn’t happen.
However, Venezuela’s CITGO Petroleum donated about $400 million in fuel support for American families. No American corporations did the same. This fuel donation over a couple of critical years was provided in 25 states and to 240 native American communities.
Most of the tribal nations in Minnesota and the Dakotas received support, as did many low-income people in the region. We were grateful. That was a donation in a time of need. Let’s remember that Venezuela helped our people as the Trump administration today commits high seas piracy and escalates a war campaign for Venezuela’s oil.
Hugo Chavez was Venezuela’s president – and a Wayuu Indian person. Just to say, that sometimes-Indigenous people are presidents of countries. On White Earth, not only did CITGO pay for fuel assistance, but they paid for solar thermal panels for houses on the reservation, which The White Earth Land Recovery Project installed.
How did this gift happen? Well, Hugo Chavez was the president of Venezuela. And mind you, he was a Wayuu Indian person. Just to say, that sometimes-Indigenous people are presidents of countries.
Joe Kennedy II (Nephew of President Kennedy), through his nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation, saw what was happening in Massachusetts where elderly people were without heat. Kennedy approached major US oil companies and oil-producing nations to ask them to assist the poor in bearing the burden of rising energy costs. “They all said no,” said Kennedy, “except for CITGO, President Chavez and the people of Venezuela.” Kennedy added, “I have asked every single oil company, and not one of them has given me a gallon to help the poor”
Citizens Energy Corporation then partnered with CITGO to assist tens of thousands of households with free heating oil. Together they delivered approximately 8.5 million gallons of heating oil to more than 33,000 households and around 60 homeless shelters in Massachusetts. Local oil dealers delivered 100 gallons of fuel at no cost to eligible families throughout the state.
“We are so grateful for this generous donation from the people of Venezuela and CITGO Petroleum Corporation,” Kennedy said.
On White Earth, not only did CITGO pay for fuel assistance, basically a direct transfer payment to Ferrel Gas and other providers, but they did something different. They paid for some solar thermal panels for houses on the reservation. The White Earth
Land Recovery Project was starting to install these solar thermal panels which reduced heating bills by up to 30% in houses- so it reduced the propane sales of companies. While that seems crazy, to cut into future profits, this is heat security, not just make money for oil companies. CITGO understood, and supported solar for White Earth, and the first wind turbine we put up.
Now, that would have been a happy ending for all of us, but energy addicts don’t have gratitude. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia and then Canada. Venezuela wanted a fair price for its oil, and American greed would not tolerate that.
These solar thermal panels reduced home heating bills by up to 30% , but it also reduced oil company propane sales. While that seems crazy to cut into future oil company profits, this move by CITGO made heat security feasible for our people. Now that would have been a happy ending, but energy addicts don’t have gratitude.
Venezuela, with the largest oil reserves in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia and then Canada, wanted a fair price for its oil. But American greed would not tolerate that. Those politics are exactly how we got Alberta’s Athabascan tar sands oil rush, driven by guys like the Koth Brothers and linked to the Flint Hills Refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, and ultimately to a lot of arrests, and impaired ecosystems.
David and Charles Koch were some of the richest guys in America until the Tech geniuses arrived, Bezos, Gates, Zuckerman and Musk. In 2013, Koch Industries was the second largest privately held company in the US. The brothers owned a fertilizer company in Venezuela and had been making some substantial profits. Venezuela, like a lot of other countries exploited by big American corporations, decided to nationalize. Then, as OPEC started in l973, the Chileans nationalized Anaconda and Kennecott copper.
In 2010, Venezuelan President Chavez expropriated FertiNitro, a company in which Koch Minerals Sarl indirectly owned 25 % of the equity. That made the brothers mad, so they went to International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which awarded the Koch brothers a large settlement.
Then came the oil. Chavez told a reporter, “We are no longer an oil colony.” Chavez wanted $35 more a barrel for the heavy tar sands oil it was sending to the US, and the Koch’s didn’t like that much. They and other oil barons nudged the first Trump and later the Obama administration to impose sanctions on Venezuela. Then the Koch Brothers moved north to the Canadian Tar sands.
By 2014, the brothers had leased 2 million-plus acres of tar sands from the Canadian government. But the oil needed to be refined, even though there was no infrastructure and no pipelines. The majority of US oil infrastructure was on the coast of Texas where the mega tankers docked. Hence Koch’s push for tar sands pipelines like the KXL pipeline — one of five proposed pipelines. Massive opposition to Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipeline (for Bakken oil) ensued. Three of the tar sands pipelines were defeated. But then came Line 3.
And that’s why Minnesota was and is important. Enbridge today has six lines across the top of the state and imports more tar sands oil than anyone, 75% of it. The Flint Hills Pine Bend Refinery processes the most tar sands oil of any refinery in the US. And it produces gas for our cars, and 77% of that oil is from the tar sands, the dirtiest, most polluting oil in the world. It’s delivered by Enbridge to Clearbrook, the big switchboard for Enbridge, then directly to Flint Hills.
These days, I liked it more when we were nice and Venezuela gave us oil. And for the $35 more per barrel that Hugo Chavez demanded, it seems like a cheap price — in comparison to all the destruction we are witnessing in the north due to ongoing oil infrastructure issues and economics.
Today, we watch the Trump administration move towards war against Venezuela and further erode the rule of law. Internationally, Trump’s actions set bad precedents. But, of course, Kings think that they can make their own laws. Personally, here in the Deep North, I’m going to try and stay far away from petroleum-based fertilizers that damage water and soil.
We’ll use natural fertilizers like fish emulsion, biochar and lots of manure. And I will continue to support work that creates a post-petroleum economy, because that’s a more peaceful economy. Plus, I hate being an addict, and I don’t like addict politics. I like gratitude and cooperation.
Thank you, Venezuela, my prayers are with your people and land.
