120SHIFTING GEARS IN SAUDI ARABIAinstance, three- quarters of the kingdom’s buildings lack insulation.^7
Many also lack double- glazed windows. But without the incentive of
higher prices, few people are willing to make capital investments required
to reduce demand.
However, any policy that suggested hardship for poorer Saudis— even
if untrue— was a nonstarter. Al- Shehri was ordered to drop the new
tariff. “It was in place for six months, and then there were a lot of com-
plaints that the poor people were being affected. There was a big cry from
the rich. And then the price was reduced,” al- Shehri said. “They always
use the poor as an excuse. But the reduction did not benefit the poor. It
benefited the rich.” The failed quest instilled in him a disdain for “fat
cats” who refused to pull their own weight. The constant battles left al-
Shehri, who wears wire- rimmed glasses and a dyed black beard in the
Gulf style, with an ingrained skepticism that disguises an otherwise
patient demeanor.
Al- Shehri wasn’t ready to give up, and he began to lay the groundwork
for his next attempt. This time he worked with the Saudi Ministry of
Social Affairs to identify poor Saudis, those receiving some form of finan-
cial support from the government. Al- Shehri arranged for the monthly
electricity bills of those customers to be paid directly by the state— in full,
if they managed to keep their consumption below a reasonable thresh-
old.^8 The program was fully supported by King Abdullah, who reserved
particular paternal compassion for the poor. By 2015, 414,000 Saudi
households were receiving government support with their bills. The poor
were protected.^9
But their protector was unwell. On January 23, 2015, after spending
three weeks in the hospital with pneumonia, King Abdullah died at the
age of ninety- one. After a brief period of mourning, a city ambulance
transported Abdullah’s body to the al- Oud cemetery in a rundown sec-
tion of old Riyadh. The king’s male relatives carried the shroud- wrapped
body through the crowds and lowered it into an unmarked grave, a fit-
ting resting place for a humble ruler.
For Saudis, the end of an era was at hand. Not only had they lost King
Abdullah, but his death coincided with the end of the decade- long boom
in the world price of crude oil. For most of that boom, and right up until