In April, Myanmar "will temporarily stop shipping natural gas to Thailand" due to drilling rig repairs. Even with Thailand gearing up some of its old plants to try to make up for this loss (about 6,000 MW), there will be a gap between supply and demand of power. This brings into sharp reality the dependency of Thailand on foreign oil. The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) indicates that Thailand is the second largest net oil importer in Southeast Asia, surpassed only by Singapore. As the government looks for solutions, however, they are only examining methods that would be detrimental to the environment. Their proposals include exploring oil and gas in Thailand and nuclear energy production. They also hope to be able to import shale gas from the US. Because of this, many groups in Thailand are fighting back against these initiatives. These groups are calling for "energy diversification, pointing to renewable energy power plants, co-generation, combined cycle power plants, [and] thermal plants."
It was interesting to read about environmental groups in Thailand because we often do not consider Asia to be very environmentally friendly. So it was refreshing to see this kind of political action occurring. The article carried a tone that implied that the government is trying to ignore these calls for cleaner energy, which is absurd to me. I know that it happens all over the world, and especially in the US, but how can a government that is built by the people, for the people ignore the voices of so many of their constituents? The so-called solutions that the government of Thailand is proposing will only lead to further destruction. Importing more oil and gas will only lead to less economic development and less jobs within the country as well.
Article here
Jessie White
4:50 pm 3/22/13
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