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.

Get our free mobile app

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.

Getty Images

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.

LOOK: The most extreme temperatures in the history of every state

Stacker consulted 2021 data from the NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) to illustrate the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state. Each slide also reveals the all-time highest 24-hour precipitation record and all-time highest 24-hour snowfall.

Keep reading to find out individual state records in alphabetical order.

Gallery Credit: Anuradha Varanasi

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.

Gallery Credit: KATELYN LEBOFF

Source: When Massachusetts Residents Could Call ‘Joe-4-Oil’ For Help

Filed Under: Citizens Energy Corporation, Joseph Kennedy ll