The Brunei Times
October 20, 2006

[Article excerpt] New Thai Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand has killed the grand plans of his predecessors, from vast tracts of oil palms to make biodiesel to building hydropower dams in military-ruled Myanmar. Piyasvasti, an energy expert who quit the Energy Ministry in 2003 over a policy row with the government of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said he would instead boost the use of renewable fuel in power production. … Piyasvasti said he was not even going to think about Thaksin’s pact with Myanmar to build a 1200 megawatt hydropower network of five dams along Myanmar’s Salween River. The plan is opposed by environmentalists and Myanmar’s ethnic groups. “The Salween dam is still far away. We don’t need to think about it for now.” Analysts said the post-coup interim government of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont seemed intent on keeping a greater distance from Myanmar’s military rulers. …