January 7, 2009 CITGO will continue fuel assistance program Play video

(Scot Yount, NECN) - A change of heart from CITGO. The company now says it will keep shipping heating oil to poor families across the United States. The move comes just two days after Joe Kennedy said Citizens Energy had to suspend fuel assistance.

CITGO had cited a floundering world economy and sinking oil prices as its reason for suspending the program. In particular, shipping the oil proved too costly. Today, its CEO said it would make sacrifices to keep the oil flowing.

What a difference 48 hours makes. On Monday Joe Kennedy’s heating assistance program Citizen's Energy said the well had run dry, CITGO energy had pulled the plug on the program that puts heating oil into the tanks of hundreds of thousands of needy Americans like 78-year-old Matilda Winslow.

Now, with a simple yes from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the program will continue.

CITGO’s CEO told reporters that the company remains committed to the program.

That is good news for the poor and elderly, which receive the assistance.

Critics have said CITGO’s association with Citizen's Energy is a ploy by Chavez to embarrass the Bush administration. Joe Kennedy bristles at the notion pointing to the refusal of American oil companies to join the program despite record-breaking profits.

Kennedy also said he does believe as critics have said, that politics is involved, what he called good politics.