VERGENNES, Vt. – Ralph Jackman says 2.5 million gallons of home heating oil being sent by Venezuela to help keep low-income Vermonters warm will really make a difference.

Standing next to his Jackman Fuels truck after making the program’s first ceremonial delivery to the John Graham Homeless Shelter, Jackman told of one customer living on a Social Security payment of $142 a month.

“I just delivered him $375 worth of oil. I don’t know how he’s going to pay for it,” Jackman said Tuesday.

Some 2.4 million gallons of Venezuelan oil will be delivered to low-income Vermonters at a 40 percent discount, with an additional 108,000 gallons going to homeless shelters for free, under a program announced last Friday and officially launched Tuesday.

Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., joined Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Citgo CEO Felix Rodriguez and Joseph Kennedy, the former Massachusetts congressman who heads the nonprofit Citizens Oil, in marking the program’s start.

“At a time when many Vermont households are struggling economically, the significant increase in home heating oil prices is causing many families to make painful choices” between health care, fixing the car, buying medicines or adequate heating, Sanders said.

“This program will, to some degree, make those choices a little bit easier,” the congressman and U.S. Senate candidate added.

The oil comes from a country whose president, Hugo Chavez, has been sharply critical of the Bush administration. Sanders said the new oil discounting program, which follows similar efforts in other northeastern states, should not be seen in a political context.

“This is certainly in this state not a partisan issue,” Sanders said.

That didn’t stop Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Tarrant from issuing a statement criticizing Sanders.

“I want to thank Citizens Energy Corp. and Joe Kennedy for putting this deal together for Vermont and other Northeast states,” Tarrant said in a statement issued by his campaign. He did not thank Sanders, who participants in the deal said initiated it.

“It’s unfortunate, however, that politicians substitute photo ops for policy,” Tarrant’s statement added. “It’s time that politicians on both sides of the aisle put their differences aside and work together in developing an energy strategy that will make our country less reliant on foreign oil.”

Critics have charged that Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, is offering heating-oil assistance to low-income Americans as a way to tweak the Bush administration. Kennedy angrily dismissed those criticisms.

“Instead of us thanking them and welcoming them and recognizing what they do, it’s open for criticism, and it’s a complete shame,” Kennedy said. “And shame on us for criticizing a nation that is providing help and assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable people that you see, who are living in this shelter right behind us.”