Word: cec
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Incorporated in July 1979, Citizen's Energy Corporation (CEC) was launched out of Kennedy's basement. Armed with a list of oil ministers' addresses, a letter of credit from Chase Manhattan, very little capital and the Kennedy name, Kennedy and a few friends sent their proposal to the oil producing countries. Most of the ministries did not respond; a few were curious; and then Venezuela said yes. Less than a year later, 8.4 million gallons of CEC-imported heating oil entered Boston harbor...
...some one had told me two years ago I'd end up working for a non-profit oil company, I'd have said they were crazy," Steven Rothstein, one of the original members of CEC, says. "When Joe first came to me with the idea I thought he was crazy. I worked for him for four months because I was his friend. But still I thought it was crazy. Imagine," he adds, "starting a non-profit oil company to help low-income people. It's brilliant. And it takes a lot of guts...
Rothstein says CEC could not have been started without considerable volunteer labor. A banker helped draft a self-financing letter of credit. They received free legal services. And Kennedy got advice and assistance from the former chief oil purchaser for Gulf...
However, establishing a program like CEC is considerably more complicated than solely purchasing and refining crude oil and shipping heating oil into Boston. And, although CEC arranges to get the refined heating oil into Boston harbor, the Massachusetts state government actually delivers the oil to eligible families. Last year, using federal home energy assistance funds, the state purchased 8.4 million gallons of home heating oil from CEC for 47 cents a gallon--less than half the retail price of home heating oil. The state distributed half the oil last winter. The remaining oil will be distributed this year...
...Energy Corp., we weren't going to involve the state, we were going to use community action agencies to help distribute the oil," Kennedy says. "Then the federal government gave the state $76 million for fuel assistance and we figured we should take advantage of it. But," he adds, "CEC itself does not have any federal government attachment. I don't like anyone who gives out money with strings attached...