More than 80 percent of Thailand’s electricity supply comes from fossil fuels. However, while the country is currently facing dwindling natural gas reserves projected to last only ten more years (Daiss 2013), the government projects that electricity demand will double by 2030. In response, whereas many countries in recent years have implemented policies to make their energy sectors greener, Thailand’s electricity development is the opposite. The government is planning to build additional coal power plants and import hydropower electricity from large dams in Laos. This response is largely due to the perverse incentive structure in the sector, which is a microcosm of the country’s pervasive competitive
clientelism. Firms and SOEs have garnered unusually high profits by engaging in rent- seeking activities, normally by using connections to political factions to obtain a privileged, oligopolistic position in the market (Marks 2011).