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During the oil shocks of the 1970s, when the price of crude soared to dizzying heights, headline writers grew fond of the expression "black gold". But that description barely seems adequate today as oil pushes past $130 a barrel and the price markers outside petrol stations change fast enough for us to actually feel the inflation wrench at our wallets.
Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop has no doubt we are caught up in a crisis prompted by demand exceeding supply, excessive hedge fund speculation and the knowledge that fossil fuels could be largely exhausted within 30 years. Like her predecessor, Piyasvasti Amranand, she sees a role for the adoption of nuclear power after a 12-year phase-in period, with solar energy gaining in popularity. Lt-Gen Poonpirom also sees her job as a challenge. She is not alone.
Millions of her fellow citizens are desperately concerned about the spiralling prices of food and energy. They wonder why their government is preoccupied with internal squabbles and trying to rewrite history by amending the constitution instead of tackling the very real and immediate problems facing the country.
For years we have lacked a coherent energy strategy, preferring instead to see-saw between options. This has exasperated vehicle manufacturers who have been handed the task of designing an eco-car, only to have the project cancelled and then reinstated a few years later with new specifications; told to engineer cars to run on NGV (compressed natural gas) at a time when great success was being achieved with LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) conversions. Then came the biofuels, or so-called "green gold", such as biodiesel and gasohol. This began as a dalliance with 7% ethyl or methyl alcohol blended with premium petrol, only to be increased to 10% ethanol after car makers had agreed to accept liability for running their vehicles with the 7% mix. This year, a handful of new models were being rolled out guaranteed to be capable of running on E20 _ 20% ethanol mixed with 80% premium gasoline.
Now the government wants to see supplies of E85 gasohol at the pumps just as soon as it can be produced, even though there are, as yet, no vehicles in Thailand able to use it. Even one of the new E20-capable vehicles would sputter to a stop seconds after ingesting so much alcohol. Special imports of flexifuel vehicles, as used in Brazil, will be necessary.
Japanese automakers say production lines can be retooled to produce E85-compatible vehicles given 18-24 months, but this would not meet the needs of export markets. A huge investment is required for E85 and business plans all have to be redrawn. Their frustration is understandable. They want the government to focus on one major project at a time, such as the eco-car, and then see it through. But years of neglect have created a sense of panic among policymakers as options and supplies dwindle and fuel import bills rise.
Any switch to E85 needs thorough research. Its corrosive nature means special safeguards. Existing cars cannot be modified. When using E85, fuel consumption is nearly twice that of 85% petrol. Yet its price point is unlikely to be half that of regular petrol. And all this comes amid a blitz of bad publicity for biofuels and apprehension over the use of prime agricultural land to grow crops for cars instead of food for people.
Biofuels, NGV and LPG are viable options. But let us also look at slashing high import tax rates on hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, along with the electric vehicles so successfully used in China, and making far more use of our nationwide rail network for freight.
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