Venezuela's Hugo Chavez A Winner In Congressional Energy Bill, Group Charges

The Partnership for America urges a no vote, saying it will raise consumer prices.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - An energy bill scheduled to be voted on tomorrow by the U.S. Congress will end up helping the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez more than U.S. consumers, a national grassroots group charged Wednesday.

“This bill is not good for the U.S., it's not good for American energy consumers, but it sure is pretty good for Hugo Chavez,” the group charged in a letter to Congress today. “The fact that Chavez will be treated better than U.S.-based companies illustrates the flawed principles on which this legislation is based.”

In its letter, the Partnership for America told Members of Congress that the bill, H.R. 6, "will hand U.S. dollars to Hugo Chavez at the expense of U.S. consumers, workers and employers" and urged Congress to reject the legislation.

The Partnership was pointing to the bills' suggested repeal of a tax provision, passed by Congress in 2005, that encourages production of American energy so the U.S. can reduce its reliance on foreign energy imports. Repeal of the provision, known as the Section 199 deduction, is written to affect only the five largest energy producers in the U.S. -– BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell.

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Ironically, it does not affect CITGO, the large energy production company that is wholly owned by the Venezuelan government and controlled by Chavez and his supporters, according to Darrell Henry of the Partnership.

“Section 199 should not be repealed in any case if legislators actually want to make our energy supply more secure,” wrote Henry, the group's vice president. “Exclusion from the deduction, in whole or in part, would discourage domestic production and damage our energy security.”

The Partnership’s letter notes that the latest version of H.R. 6 would “present more disincentives to American companies to develop American oil and natural gas,” and would hurt consumers as higher costs are passed on. It also would result in lost jobs as companies move more production overseas, he said.