Oil is (mostly) fungible. It’s not that much of a simplification to say that consumption of any oil enriches everyone who has oil to sell. Of course, this mean that cutting into Middle Eastern oil wealth is a lot harder than a lot of people realize. A reduction in US consumption would put downward pressure on oil prices and hurt petrocrats’ revenues, which is good. But the OPEC cartel is designed to support prices, and wouldn’t sit still in the face of falling demand. Really, a post-petroleum economy is the only way to permanently break OPEC.
