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I’m no economist, and I’m certainly not a petroleum reserves expert. But even I can tell that there is something wrong wrong wrong when our country is experiencing the kinds of price spikes we’ve seen for petroleum products, and experts are predicting a harsh, expensive heating winter, and yet our domestic oil producers are exporting more oil than is being kept here. One might almost suspect that they are contributing to the inflation at the pump and the furnace.

That’s certainly what the aptly-named consumer watchdog agency, ConsumerWatchdog.org, thinks. That website is run by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), and FTCR President Jamie Court, and petroleum industry consultant Tim Hamilton, recently wrote a letter to President Bush in which they pointed out that, among other things, “In the first seven months of this year, the oil companies exported over 96 million barrels (4 billion gallons) of fuel oil. The amount is 48 times the volume of the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve. When combined with the propane and natural gas that was also exported, the total export of heating products equates to 58 times the volume held in the entire publicly owned reserve in the United States.”

The bottom line? “With winter approaching, oil company exporting has again set the stage for a price spike,” say Court and Hamilton.

Remember that when the predicted doubled and tripled home heating bills start rolling in this winter.

You can read the full text of their letter to President Bush here.