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Citizens in Thailand Furious Over Rising Electricity Costs

Citizens Slam Thailand Prime Minister Over Rising Electricity Costs

Citizens in Thailand have taken to social media to slam to the Prime Minister over rising electricity costs during the summer months. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha responded Tuesday saying that the government is speeding up efforts to identify new sources of alternative energy.

He was responding to people on social media slamming the government for the high electricity costs and why he isn’t doing more to reduce people’s energy prices.

“We must consider why the bills are increasing. It is a complex subject that involves both production costs and management. “We’ll look into what we can do.” Don’t be concerned. “I’ll handle it myself,” said the prime minister.

He went on to say that power pricing reflect long-standing corporate activities and contractual responsibilities. “However, the government will make every effort to ensure that no one is disadvantaged,” Gen Prayut stated.

He went on to note that the government has been attempting to find and promote the use of less expensive energy sources, such as renewable energy, as well as encouraging local communities and homes to utilise solar cells to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity.

“We should also consider energy and petrol prices in other countries.” But don’t compare us to countries who produce their own energy.

“Thailand must continue to import energy from other countries because domestic natural gas supply in the Gulf of Thailand is diminishing.” We must import energy from either Myanmar or Malaysia.

“As a result, we must increase our efforts to find alternative energy sources.” “It won’t happen right away, but we’re making good progress,” Gen Prayut stated.

Citizens Slam Thailand Prime Minister Over Rising Electricity Costs

Netizens on social media have posted photographs of their high-priced bills, with one Facebook user claiming that he was infected with Covid-19 in April of last year and self-isolated at home for 16 days, using two air conditioners alternately. That month’s electricity bill was 1,348 baht.

“But this April, I used electricity as usual and took five days off during the Songkran holiday, but my power bill was 2,060 baht,” he explained.Between May and August, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently agreed to implement a single electricity bill rate.

This will result in lower electricity prices for enterprises but higher bills for homeowners, which will be especially undesirable during the summer’s scorching heat.

The new cost will be 4.77 baht per kilowatt-hour, which is lower than the existing rate for enterprises, which is 5.33 baht per unit from January to April, but an increase from 4.72 baht per unit for families.

From March 10 to 20, the ERC conducted online polls to elicit feedback on its decision.

According to analysts, the move has been heavily criticized for benefiting the industrial sector, as the updated rates will allow enterprises to save 10% on their bills while families will suffer a 1% increase in electricity expenses.

The underlying factor is a 5% increase in the “fuel adjustment tariff,” or Ft, between May and August, whereas the Ft connected with industrial electricity demand is predicted to fall by 30%.

electricity bills thailand

The government and ERC defended the higher Ft rate for households from May to August by claiming that a 3.2-billion-baht subsidy had already been paid to vulnerable groups, such as low-income earners and those utilizing fewer than 300 units.

Mingkwan Sangsuwan, a member of the Palang Pracharath Party’s strategy committee, stated that the party’s strategy committee agreed with a campaign pledge to reduce the rate to 2.50 baht per unit for households and 2.70 baht for the industrial sector by revising concession contracts for natural gas production in the Gulf of Thailand.

Sirikanya Tansakun, deputy leader of the Move Forward Party, stated that the party would reduce power bills by 70 satang per unit through utilising ERC processes. It would also allow customers to shop around and buy from other vendors besides Egat.

EGAT and Rising Electricity Costs in Thailand

The energy Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the state-owned business in charge of generating, transferring, and distributing energy in Thailand, determines power costs. Electricity prices in Thailand vary according on consumer type, usage levels, and tariff rates.

Residential energy costs in Thailand are often tiered, which means that the rate per unit of electricity (kWh) rises as use rises. The more power a household consumes, the more they pay per unit consumed. In general, the first tier or block of electricity usage has the lowest rate, with increased costs for succeeding tiers.

electricity costs thailand

In Thailand, commercial and industrial customers are typically taxed based on demand and usage levels, with varied tariff structures depending on their size and kind of operation.

It should be noted that electricity prices in Thailand may fluctuate due to a variety of factors such as fuel prices, exchange rates, and government policies.

For the most up-to-date and accurate information on power costs in Thailand, visit the EGAT website or contact the relevant electricity authority or utility provider in Thailand directly. They have the most up-to-date and accurate information about electricity rates and tariffs in the country.

EGAT provided some general information about the factors that may contribute to rising electricity costs in Thailand.

  1. Fuel prices: Thailand relies heavily on imported fossil fuels, such as natural gas and coal, for electricity generation. Fluctuations in global fuel prices can impact electricity costs in Thailand. If the prices of these fuels rise, it can lead to increased electricity generation costs, which may be passed on to consumers.
  2. Infrastructure investments: Thailand’s electricity infrastructure requires constant maintenance, upgrades, and investments in new power plants and transmission lines to meet the growing demand for electricity. These infrastructure investments can result in increased costs, which may be reflected in electricity tariffs.
  3. Renewable energy development: Thailand has been promoting renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydropower, to diversify its energy mix and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. However, the initial investment costs for renewable energy projects can be high, and these costs may be passed on to consumers, leading to increased electricity prices.
  4. Government policies and regulations: Changes in government policies and regulations related to electricity generation, distribution, and pricing can impact electricity costs in Thailand. For example, changes in subsidies for renewable energy, adjustments to feed-in tariffs, or changes in tax policies can affect the overall cost structure of electricity generation, which may impact electricity prices.
  5. Exchange rates: Thailand’s electricity generation relies heavily on imported fuels, and fluctuations in exchange rates can impact the costs of importing these fuels. If the Thai Baht weakens against other currencies, it can increase the costs of importing fuels, which may be reflected in electricity prices.
  6. Demand and consumption patterns: Increased demand for electricity due to population growth, urbanization, and changes in consumption patterns can put pressure on the electricity supply and demand balance, which may result in increased electricity costs to meet the growing demand.

It’s important to note that electricity costs are influenced by a combination of factors and can vary over time. To get accurate and up-to-date information on electricity costs in Thailand, it’s best to refer to reliable sources, such as government websites, utility providers, or energy regulatory authorities.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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