US:Temperatures plunged across the United States this week, with a cold blast yesterday pushing right into the Deep South, giving parts of Texas, Louisiana and Florida a bone-chilling taste of winter. In northeastern cities, mayors have started airing television ads urging citizens to call a toll-free number if they see a homeless person at risk from the cold.
Retailers are enjoying their busiest time of year, with the average American planning to spend about $800 (€600) on Christmas presents.
For many low-income families, however, the onset of winter brings a financial headache as they struggle to meet the rising cost of heating their homes.
Former congressman Joe Kennedy is running his own TV ads in 16 states, encouraging poor householders to call him if they need heating fuel at a 40 per cent discount. Kennedy, who is the son of the late Robert Kennedy, has persuaded Citgo, a Houston-based oil company, to give his Citizens' Energy Corporation more than 100 million gallons (380 million litres) at a discount price, which he distributes to more than 400,000 households across America.
Kennedy's scheme offers welcome relief to its beneficiaries but it has provoked outrage among some conservatives because Citgo, the company providing the oil, is wholly owned by the government of Venezuela.
The Wall Street Journal last week accused Kennedy of polishing the public image of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who created a stir at the United Nations this year by referring to president Bush as the devil.
"The former Democratic congressman describes the deal he's cooked up with Mr Chávez as charity for low-income consumers of heating oil. But it's worth asking what the price of this largesse is to Venezuelans and to US security interests . . . In the mould of the Castro strategy of sending armies of 'doctors' and 'teachers' among the Latin American poor, Mr Chávez is trying to shape US public opinion in the hope that more gringos will come to see the Chávez government as benevolent," the newspaper said.
A Native American tribe on a remote island off the coast of Alaska rejected Kennedy's offer of cheap oil in protest against Chávez's remarks about the US president, and the governor of Maine has withdrawn from the scheme.
Kennedy says he asked every major US oil company and every Opec country to give "a little bit, just a little bit" of the billions of dollars they have made from price rises to help the poor.
"Every single company said no. Every single one except one, and that was Citgo. So it is important that when a major company reaches out and does something like this, that we should acknowledge and celebrate the kind of action they are taking.
"Exxon made $10 billion in a quarter - in three months out of the year they made $10 billion. And they say, when it comes to helping the poor, 'Sorry, there is no money in the till'," he said.
Despite the outrage among conservatives over Kennedy's scheme, the US remains the biggest importer of Venezuelan oil and the two countries enjoy a robust trade relationship. Kennedy points out that Ford and General Motors sold 300,000 cars in Venezuela last year but nobody is calling for that kind of economic activity to stop.
"It's a little interesting that the only time you hear these attacks come up is in the context of helping low-income people deal with their heating needs. No one criticises the fact there is 580 million barrels of crude oil that come into this country every year from Venezuela. There isn't a car on the road, there isn't a home that needs heat, there isn't a jet plane flying, there isn't a diesel truck rolling that doesn't use Venezuelan oil. Nobody asks them to give it up. But boy, you help out the poor people and all of a sudden you are doing something unAmerican," he said.
