For most of our lives, the oil cartel OPEC has held the global economy in a stranglehold by controlling world oil prices here at home and abroad. They’ve had the power by turning on and off the spigots to drive the U.S. economy into recession – as in the 1970s, or flood the global economy with cheap oil and drive Texas drillers out of business almost overnight  – as in the 1980s.

The world price has fluctuated from $8 to $110 a barrel, and those gyrations have made the Arabs rich and the rest of the world seasick.

With the UAE’s departure, OPEC’s power – which was already dwindling – has been greatly diminished. Hooray!

But it was the shale revolution here at home that killed OPEC. The chart below shows how the explosion of U.S. oil and gas production made the U.S. the world’s premier fossil fuel superpower overnight.