www.zwire.com Angela Carter, Register Staff March 10, 2003

WEST HAVEN — Susan Minniti takes her lunch to work this winter instead of eating out. Shopping trips are less frequent and she sometimes avoids the most convenient gas stations. "I go to the cheapest one there is," Minniti said Sunday, as she sat in her Richmond Avenue home with U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and Patricia Wrice, executive director of Operation Fuel. Minniti and her husband, Tony Minniti, were describing to both lawmakers the sacrifices they are making because of a stinging spike in their oil bill. Tony Minniti showed them a December 2002 bill for $242 to fill his tank. Two days ago, he paid $335. "This winter’s been abnormally cold and very long," he said. "The price is up 60 to 70 percent over what we’ve paid in the past." Lieberman and DeLauro blasted President Bush and Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for not releasing oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to alleviate price increases and supply shortages. "The supplies are demonstrably down by 50 percent in the Northeast," Lieberman said. "There’s nothing more (the Minnitis) can do to make their situation better, except keep their home colder than it should be." The reserve consists of about 2 million barrels of home heating oil and is intended for release during a crisis. DeLauro said New Haven harbor is a storage site for approximately 850,000 gallons. She and Lieberman in 2000 spearheaded legislation creating the reserve. "There was foresight to put something like this in place," DeLauro said. "This is a crisis in cost, and it is a very cold winter." When the Minnitis asked what was driving increases in gasoline and home heating oil prices, Lieberman pointed to an industry strike, now in its third month in Venezuela, and trepidation over a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Venezuela is the fifth-largest oil exporter in the world and the fourth-largest supplier to the United States. Iraq produces about 1.5 million barrels per day and approximately one-third reaches America, Lieberman said in a Feb. 24 letter urging Abraham to tap the Northeast supply. "This bothers me more now — knowing this reserve is there," Tony Minniti said. As for gasoline prices, Lieberman said the per-gallon average in Connecticut is $1.75, up from $1.20 per gallon at this time last year. He also said use of national petroleum reserves could buffer drivers against "gouging." Wrice said Operation Fuel was set up to help middle-class families like the Minnitis, who earn too much to qualify for home heating assistance through the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and therefore "fall through the cracks." She said homeowners are losing their houses because they can not afford to heat them. Lieberman said he does not think it is too late in the season to tap the reserve. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Bush has increased funding for heating assistance to low-income families and for weatherization programs. He referred questions on the petroleum and home heating reserves to an energy department spokesperson who could not be reached for comment. Susan Minniti said she hopes people will contact their legislators and the administration and push for relief. Angela Carter can be reached at 789-5614 or acarter@nhregister.com.

www.gettysburgtimes.com By JOHN MESSEDER - Times Staff Writer

Political turmoil in Venezuela and possible war with Iraq already are having an effect on local road work that will not start for months. Franklin Township Supervisor Chairman Craig Hartley said the planned major projects will be done, but smaller, maintenance projects may be adjusted if oil prices do not come back down.

“If oil is available for road work, we are probably going to see an increase of 25 to 30 cents a gallon,” Hartley said. “that is a lot.”

Hartley, who also is the township’s road master, made the comment at the February supervisors meeting. At the March meeting, the supervisors published their bid requests in a market that is forecasting costs as high as 40 cents a gallon over last year.

The township’s 2003 road budget contains an estimated increase of five cents a gallon over 2002, but he will have to “re-figure once we get the bids,” Hartley said.

Timothy Montague, of York and Reading-based Koch Pavement Solutions, also is secretary/treasurer of the state Association of Asphalt Material Applicators. In a telephone interview Friday afternoon, he noted the increased asphalt prices are “solely an issue of supply.”

Montague explained the type of oil used in asphalt comes largely from Venezuela. At least 60 percent — some estimates are as high as 80 percent — of asphalt used on the United States’ east coast comes from that country.

Middle East oil is lighter, better suited for making gasoline and other fuels.

Political turmoil in Venezuela involving the military and the current government resulted in refinery workers not being paid, so they walked off the job. Montague said many of them went back to work about two weeks ago, but when they left, they simply shut down the plants.

“It’ll take them a year to get (repairs) completely done,” he said, adding the companies also are having “difficulty getting oil in from the fields to the refineries.”

Competition for available asphalt is stiff.

Venezuelan oil is used in materials for asphalt roofs, including tar roofs, asphalt shingles, and impregnated felt, and that season already is in full swing, with construction suppliers “scrambling to get other sources,” Montague said.

Also, the paving season is starting in southern parts of the United States.

“It could be like the oil embargo in 1973,

www.reviewjournal.com Monday, March 10, 2003 Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Grandstanding on fuel prices

As sure as winter is followed by spring, you can bet some California politician will raise a ruckus about rising gasoline prices and call for something to be done. This year's bleatings originate from Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who wants the General Accounting Office to investigate whether oil companies are taking more gasoline refineries "than usual" out of commission for maintenance ... all with the intent of cutting supplies, thus boosting prices and profits.

"I am extremely concerned about the rising gasoline prices ... particularly with regard to the possible manipulation of supply due to idle refineries," she said.

Rather than calling for another formal investigation of the oil industry -- the 29th since 1979 -- the grandstanding Sen. Boxer would better serve her constituents and the rest of the nation if she dusted off her Economics 101 textbook and reviewed the sections on supply and demand. She'd find that price increases are predictable, for several reasons.

For one, the price of crude oil is at a two-year high, not only because of jitters about the likely war with Iraq, but also due to uncertainties about the availability of oil from Venezuela and its crazed socialist dictator Hugo Chavez.

Another is the pending change in gasoline formulas which takes place each spring in California and other areas that require specialized fuels to reduce pollution during the winter months. As April approaches, and refineries prepare to make the switch to spring and summer gasoline formulas, supplies often run low, causing a boost in prices. California faces an additional problem this year, as it's phasing out the additive MTBE and switching to ethanol, again cutting into production.

Sen. Boxer also might want to review recent history. The Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren note that every one of the 28 previous federal, state and local investigations of alleged price-gouging by gasoline manufacturers has "ended in the complete exoneration of the industry." And when adjusted for inflation, gasoline prices are still roughly 50 cents per gallon cheaper now than they were when they peaked during the Iranian hostage crisis.

All of which suggests that Sen. Boxer's crusade is little more than a publicity stunt, designed to grab headlines and foment populist outrage, all the while squandering taxpayer dollars on a frivolous government investigation.

www.gainesvilletimes.com Local News  -   Monday, March 10, 2003 From staff, wire reports

Estella Pifano-Steffen of Gainesville has a question for the international community: "Why are you silent about Venezuela?"

Pifano-Steffen, a Vene-zuelan native, joined about 100 protesters Sunday in Atlanta to bring attention to that country's economic and political distress.

"There were protests in 36 cities around the world today," Pifano-Steffen said, "but we're not going to hear about it. The oil spills at Lake Maracaibo are horrendous. Why isn't Greenpeace doing something?"

In January, USA Today reported oil is spilling into the lake since oil workers joined a national strike against President Hugo Chavez in December. The lake, 325 miles west of Caracas, has about 8,000 active oil wells with 15,000 to 28,000 miles of pipes and tubes snaking along the bottom.

"This is so difficult to understand," Pifano-Steffen said. "Greenpeace makes a big commotion about other things, but nothing about Venezuela as far as I can see. The world is focused on Iraq."

But Chavez claimed Sunday an international campaign involving the United States was trying to discredit his government, and he warned other countries not to be fooled by the so-called smear tactics.

"There are still newspaper headlines in various parts of the world (and) officials from some governments ... that are spreading lies," said Chavez, who has been fighting a national movement attempting to force him to resign or call early elections.

Sunday's protest was the fourth for Pifano-Steffen. Chavez opponents from Washington to Atlanta to Santiago, Chile, also marched.

Two weeks ago, Chavez strongly criticized the United States, Spain and Colombia for allegedly meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Within days, bombs ripped through the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas.

The U.S. Embassy later closed temporarily because of a security threat. No one has been arrested for the bombings.

Pifano-Steffen's nephew, Juan Ernesto Lossada, said he wants the United States to pressure Chavez into submitting to early elections.

"Chavez is the only president of a constitutional nation to visit (Saddam) Hussein," said Lossada, who has been visiting Gainesville for two months from Venezuela. "There are pictures to prove he visited him."

Lossada said inflation and unemployment are crippling the country's middle class and the poor.

"How can he say he is the president of the poor?" Lossada asked. "He has impoverished the nation, and the middle class is against him."

Venezuela is trying to emerge from a failed two-month general strike against Chavez. The protest, which ended last month, was strongest in the oil industry, the source of half of the government revenues and 80 percent of export earnings.

Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter before the strike began Dec. 2 and still is importing gasoline because of difficulties in bringing refineries back online.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, says his foes want to replace him with old status quo, when an elite minority held power for decades.

Lossada will return to Venezuela on Friday and said he will continue to work to free the country from Chavez' rule.

"I will not allow that man to become the owner of Venezuela," he said.

Originally published Monday, March 10, 2003

www.nbc6.net POSTED: 3:48 p.m. EST March 9, 2003 UPDATED: 5:28 a.m. EST March 10, 2003

MIAMI -- Radical Islamic groups in the Middle East are getting between $300 million and $500 million a year from various criminal networks in Latin America, a top U.S. military commander said.

Gen. James T. Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, said much of this money comes from drug trafficking, arms dealing and other illegal activities. Southern Command oversees U.S. military relations in Latin America.

Hill said the funds are sent abroad from several Latin American areas with large Middle Eastern populations, such as the "triple frontier" between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela.

"The fastest-growing religion in Latin America today is Islam," Hill told The Miami Herald for a story published Sunday.

Hill said there was believed to be between three million and six million people of Middle Eastern descent in Latin America.

"There are radical Islamic groups associated with that population that are using it to create lots of money for their organizations," he said.

He said about $300 million to $500 million a year goes from Latin America to groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Gamaat.

Hill called for "increased coordination" among armed forces to fight narco-terrorism, conduct disaster relief operations and help stop the flow of money to international terrorist groups.

Emilio Viano, a terrorism expert at American University in Washington, said he was not surprised by Hill's assertions on funding for terrorist groups.

But he added that in some cases, increased international scrutiny after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has made it harder for terrorist groups to launder money there.

Some experts, however, were skeptical about the new estimates of Islamic groups' fund-raising in Latin America.

Eduardo Gamarra, director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center, called the estimates "absolutely ridiculous."

"A lot of figures have been bouncing around, but in the last year I've been looking at these particular issues, and most of what I found was speculation," he said.