Back in April, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it would leave the world’s largest oil cartel. As I explained in a previous column, this was a win for American consumers because it signaled the UAE was preparing to pump more oil. Right on cue, they produced a record 4.1 million barrels per day last month, which helped drive down US prices at the pump.

The background here is that the Emirates were part of OPEC for decades. Like all cartels, it seeks to keep prices artificially high by suppressing competition. Member nations coordinate on production, agreeing to keep output at specified levels—always below where they’d be in a free market.

But the outbreak of war with Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz reshuffled the deck of the oil market. To cope with the unprecedented loss of oil flows out of the Persian Gulf, countries worldwide have been burning through their oil reserves to keep a lid on prices, because oil at $200 a barrel would mean a global recession.

Here in the US, the government has been draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at the fastest pace on record while private........

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