IRAN AND DUBAI LEAD THE WAY105imposed the first- ever limits on citizens’ receipt of free municipal water,
which had to be desalinated at high cost in the same gas- fired cogenera-
tion plants that produce electricity.^23
Enforcing these directives was left to the Dubai Supreme Council
of Energy, a regulatory body created to impose efficiency on a city in
which infrastructure and habits had been shaped by forty years of
cheap energy. The council’s director was Nejib Zaafrani, a Tunisian for-
mer Shell executive and board member on Abu Dhabi’s state- owned oil
and gas firms. Zaafrani declared that Dubai was now an importer of
energy and that its residents should behave accordingly. He set out
to reduce projected electricity demand in 2030 by 30 percent. This, he
said, would allow Dubai to forgo construction of 4 gigawatts of gen-
eration capacity.^24 Raising prices would be complemented by new effi-
ciency standards on buildings and appliances. Zaafrani warned that
efficiency programs could not function unless subsidies were cut. No
one, for example, would replace an inefficient air conditioner without
a strong price signal.^25
With Sheikh Mohammed’s blessing, DEWA imposed Dubai’s tariff
increase on January 1, 2011. The new prices were not subject to public
debate. Even inside government, there appears to have been very little
consultation outside the ruler’s diwan and energy council.^26 The price
hikes surprised policy- making staff in the Dubai Executive Council,
the body normally tasked with evaluating and implementing policy.^27
DEWA’s increase took effect during the winter, when electricity
demand is at its lowest. It initially raised few objections among the major-
ity expatriate community. As the weather warmed and people turned
on their air conditioners, they started to notice. They not only paid higher
rates for power and water, but the LNG surcharge weighed heavily on
their bills because of the seasonal increase in demand.
Dubai’s foreign residents were effectively cross- subsidizing citizens.
A story in Dubai’s Gulf News was flooded with more than two hundred
comments from foreign residents shocked by the increases. “I can attest
to the tremendous and horrifying increase in my DEWA bill,” one resi-
dent wrote, offering comparisons of summer 2010 and 2011 invoices,
which showed increases of 70 percent or more, from $144 in July 2010 to