Why OPEC No Longer Calls the Shots: The oil embargo 40 years ago spurred an energy revolution. World production is 50% higher today than in 1973

Click here to read this WSJ article by Daniel Yergin, 10-15-13. Mr. Yergin, vice chairman of IHS, is the author of "The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World" (Penguin Press, 2012). Excerpts:

"...the OPEC embargo ... provided massive incentive to develop new oil fields outside of the Middle East—what became known as "non-OPEC," led by drilling in the North Sea and Alaska."

"Despite enormous growth in the U.S. economy since 1973, oil consumption today is up less than 7%."

"The iconic images of the 1970s—gas lines and angry motorists—are trotted out whenever some new disruption happens. Yet those gas lines weren't the result of markets. They were the largely self-inflicted result of government interference in markets with price controls and supply allocation."

"The 1970s were also years of natural-gas shortages...they too were the result of regulation and price controls. What solved the shortages wasn't more controls but their elimination..."

"The lesson is that markets and price signals can work very efficiently, and surprisingly swiftly, even in crises, if they are allowed to."

"Imports reached 60% of domestic consumption in 2005, but they are now down to 35%—the same level as in 1973."