BBC News story - "Mayor signs Venezuelan oil deal"
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6377867.stm

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Ken Livingstone has signed an oil deal with Venezuela - providing
cheap fuel for London's buses and giving cut price travel for those on
benefits.

The mayor of London said the agreement will help provide half-price
bus and tram travel to some 250,000 Londoners on income support.

The deal follows discussions between Mr Livingstone and Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.

Mr Livingstone signed the deal at a ceremony in City Hall.

Representatives from the Venezuelan government and the oil company
Petróleos de Venezuela Europa (PDVE) were at the ceremony.

"Third-rate dictator"

"This agreement will benefit up to a quarter of a million of the
lowest income Londoners," Mr Livingstone said.

"Those on income support will be eligible to receive half price bus
and tram travel - a benefit worth at least £280-a-year."

In return, a team of officials from the Greater London Authority will
work in Venezuela advising on recycling, waste management, traffic and
on reducing carbon emissions.

But Richard Barnes, deputy leader of the London Assembly
Conservatives, attacked the deal.

"Why does London, one of the richest capitals in the world, need to
exploit a developing nation? This money would be better directed at
the poor of Venezuela," he said.

"London should not be doing business with third-rate South American
dictators with an appalling human rights and democratic record."

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the Americas, and its
socialist president is the Bush administration's fiercest critic in
Latin America.

But in November 2005, it signed a deal with the US state of
Massachusetts to provide cheap heating oil to poor households. Similar
deals were also signed in Boston and New York.
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There's also a press release from the Mayor's office which has a few
more details:
http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=10936


Hmm... I've two possible issues with this. One is that cheaper fuel
might stifle any movement towards using alternative, cleaner fuel for
buses - e.g.hydrogen fuel cells, biofuel and diesel-electric hybrid
buses (yes the latter two would still utilise diesel, but the cheaper
price of that diesel fuel could mean it might be less economically
attractive to pursue those options so the situation gets stuck at the
status quo).

The second issue is who we're dealing with. The Venezuelan National
Assembly has recently voted to allow President Hugo Chavez to
basically rule by decree for the next 18 months [1], which doesn't
seem like a spectacularly democratic development - I'm not sure it's
quite such a great idea to be quite so cozy with such an
administration.

I'm undecided about the issue raised by Mr Barnes in the BBC news
piece quoted above - his argument is that this deal means London would
be exploiting a developing nation. Given that Venezuela already has
similar deals with government bodies in the US I'm less convinced by
this. Indeed the aforementioned cheap oil deals lead to poor
households benefiting, which fits in with Chavez's socialist
principles, so I surmise that perhaps the London deal was also
contingent on poorer people in London similarly benefiting - as they
will.

It should be noted that the information I've read so far suggests that
only those on income support will benefit, not those on job seekers
allowance, so this will benefit those who have a low income rather
than no income.

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[1] BBC News - "Chavez gets sweeping new powers"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6315819.stm