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Alaska Villages Reject Venezuela Oil
"When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn't matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from," said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community of 280 where residents are paying $7.25 a gallon for fuel.
For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets his supporters during a campaign rally at Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) (Fernando Llano - AP) 
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An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News bashed the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alaskans with home heating costs.
"It's embarrassing that residents in a state with so much oil wealth should be looking to a foreign nation for help," the newspaper said. "It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift."
A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, John Manly, said the governor believes Chavez's donation is a ploy to undermine Americans' faith in their government. But he said it is up to each village to make its own decision.
"It seems like a very strange irony that we produce the oil and yet every year there seems to be a chronic problem in getting the fuel to people that need it," Manly said.
Joan Eddy, principal and teacher at Nelson Lagoon's school, said most buildings in town were erected 30 to 40 years ago, which makes them pretty old, considering how they get battered by the constant 20-25 mph wind coming off the ocean. Their heating systems are aging, too.
She noted the fuel barge is late arriving this year, and said residents are turning on their furnaces for only a few hours in the morning and at night.
"We're conserving as much as we can because we are concerned. It looks like it's going to be a snowy winter and cold," she said.
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On the Net:
Citgo Low-cost Heating Oil Program: http:/
Alaska Low-Income Energy Programs: http:/
