When Massachusetts Residents Could Call 'Joe-4-Oil' For Help

There was a time when Massachusetts residents who were down on their luck could call "Joe-4-Oil" to get help with their home heating oil needs. There was even a chance that Joseph P. Kennedy ll would deliver the oil himself.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy ll was born in Boston on September 24, 1952, one of 11 children born to United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakal Kennedy. Joe Kennedy is two years older than his brother Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024.

The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Joe Kennedy grew up in McLean, Virginia and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

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Kennedy attended the posh Boston boarding schools Milton Academy and Manter Hall School and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976.

Kennedy founded the non-profit Citizens Energy Corporation (CEC) in 1979, providing discounted heating oil to low-income and elderly families in Massachusetts. CEC began renewable energy generation in 2010 and continued to assist those in need.

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Kennedy served the Massachusetts 8th congressional district as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 1999, announcing his retirement in 1998.

Kennedy returned to Citizen Energy Corporation after retiring from Congress. In 2005, Citgo Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, became the primary donor of heating oil to Kennedy's Citizen's Energy Corporation. The oil was delivered to families in need.

Donations dried up in 2015 when political turmoil ensued in Venezuela.

Kennedy's son, Joseph P. Kennedy lll, was appointed United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland in 2022 after serving eight years in Congress and failing to unseat fellow Democrat U.S. Senator Ed Markey.

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