It turns out you'll be able to call Joe for free oil after all.
Venezuelan company Citgo Petroleum Corp. said yesterday it plans to continue supporting a program run by Joseph P. Kennedy II that provides free heating oil to 200,000 low-income households in 23 states, including Massachusetts - just two days after Kennedy said Citgo was indefinitely suspending the program.
(...) "We never stopped the program," Citgo chief executive Alejandro Granado said twice at a press conference yesterday in Citizens Energy's office in South Boston.
Citizens, which had publicized it would start taking applications on Jan. 5 from people who needed help heating their homes, said it thought Citgo's indecision meant the program would be suspended.
"We were put in a position where we were unable to take the applications," Kennedy said. "It took a few days longer than we could manage."
(...) Kennedy would not say whether he talked to Chávez this week, but the former Massachusetts congressman said he discussed the situation with several members of Congress and "did what was necessary to make this work."
US Representative Bill Delahunt, Democrat from Quincy, who helped negotiate the original deal with Chávez at a meeting in Caracas several years ago, said he and other members of Congress personally contacted Chávez after learning the program was in jeopardy.
"It's really important to continue the program," Delahunt said. "In New England, it has been extraordinarily helpful to get low-income people through the tough winters we have had." Delahunt said he thought the program could also pave the way for better relations between the United States and Venezuelan governments. Chávez has been a critic of the US government.
Granado said he talked to Chávez yesterday morning and was given the go-ahead to continue the program. Citizens said it will start accepting applications on Jan. 19 and expects home deliveries to begin two to three days later.
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