The reason why the US should not meddle in OPEC has nothing to do with its unilateral legal claim (exercised, in recent years, to disasterous effect) to interfere in the affairs of other countries.

Rather, it is because Saudi Arabia might not take very kindly to such interference. So what, you ask? So, maybe Noah has forgotten the gas lines of the 1970s, when Saudi Arabia, annoyed at US middle-East policy, held back oil. Or maybe Noah has forgotten how dependent our middle-East foreign policy has become on the Saudi dictators--imagine if we pushed them to the point where they were overthrown for, say, a radical muslim regime having some 20 percent of the world's oil reserves.

The point is, Noah, that although OPEC is not a country it is the agency of a group of countries. And no unilateral US lawmaking--or inane speechifying by presidential candidates--is going to change that.