Our Director Josh Hart presented the case against 'smart' meters to the Golden Gate Breakfast Club in San Francisco last week
Stop Smart Meters! has been pounding the pavement recently in San Francisco, telling all who will listen about the urgent need to resist installation. We were honored last week to be invited to present to the esteemed members of the Golden Gate Breakfast Club, one of the most respected social clubs in San Francisco that includes members from the business, charitable, and political leadership of the City. The club boasts such members as Jim Lazarus, Senior Vice President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, who was oddly absent for our talk. Perhaps it’s because he has been doing promotional ads for PG&E talking up the ‘benefits’ of ‘smart’ meters, and didn’t want to hear about the reality of the hazardous, false techno-solutions he is backing. (He is at about 1:40 in the video)
PG&E had their opportunity to address the Club a couple of weeks ago, and we were there to listen. The PG&E representative- Travis- told the Club that ‘smart’ meters were being paid for by federal stimulus funds and no rates were being raised to pay for the meters. The facts are that PG&E obtained the entire $2.2 billion cost from customers through rate increases approved by the CPUC. Being casual with the truth is hardly out of character for the investor owned utility though. PG&E has been lying, cheating, and stealing every chance it can get, as long as there is money involved. One of the most popular lies- parroted by the CPUC (and in fact by Travis) is that wireless meters are mandated by the Federal Government and there is no way to opt out. Not the case! Federal smart grid policy does not mandate either that we have new ‘smart’ meters or that they be wireless. But making people believe that sure helps the utilities force their meters on people.
Last Wednesday, it was our chance to set the record straight. We woke up at 5am, headed down to the Marines Memorial Building near Union Square for a bright and early 7am start (how do they do it every Wednesday?). We presented the case against wireless smart meters, from health to privacy, accuracy to interference. Several of the club members reported inaccurate, overinflated bills, or cases of electronic interference, so it was no chore to convince them that the concerns of 30 CA local governments and millions of people are legitimate.
We thank the members of the GGBC for their rapt attention, clarifying questions, and interest in the topic of wireless smart meters. If you are part of a civic society or other organization, please contact us and have us come and speak at your event about the smart meter debacle. Believe us, it grows more nightmarish daily.
Come to the CA Public Utilities Commission meeting this Thursday, March 10th at 9:30am at 505 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco’s Civic Center. Let’s allow all voices be heard. Smart meters must be stopped!
We even got a certificate of appreciation
Fantastic work Josh! Thank you for your Intelligent, Brave, and Important work in protecting and educating so many on the dangers of radiation emitting smart meters.
Here is a copy of a brilliant post from R.M: HOpe it is ok to repost:
PG$E’S DECEPTIVE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.
PG$E’s Management Strategy was to get the 10 million Wireless Meters deployed as fast as they could without the people knowing much, if anything, about it.
Then PG$E will make huge windfall profits (none shared with customers) by firing all the meter readers and collecting huge $ penalties from customers for reconnection service. PG$E will be able to disconnect and reconnect service remotely with the click of a mouse with the WIRELESS meters.
After installation and problems occur, PG$E will be paid to fix and solve and correct the problems, so the more problems, the more money will flow from to PG$E. And it will all be paid by customers via rate increases and all kinds of other allowances approved by the PUC.
The Attorney, Lindh, for the PUC was previously the attorney for PG$E.
The Chairman of the PUC, Peevey, was previously the President of the Utility Company.
PG$E was caught/busted/revealed prior to completion of deployment of all the 10 million WIRELESS meters.
So the current PG$E PROPAGANDA THEME is that they did a BAD JOB WITH COMMUNICATIONS.
But that is NOT true. That propaganda theme continues to cover up and disguise the REAL PROBLEMS FOR CUSTOMERS.
If PG$E communicated well from the beginning then customers would all know that:
1. The Wireless smart Meters Deployed (WMD) do NOT reduce energy usage.
2. The Wireless smart Meters Deployed (WMD) do not reduce utility bills.
3. The WMD do not facilitate renewable energy integrating into the grid.
4. The WMD jeopardize the overall effectiveness of a smart grid.
5. The WMD create security problems that WIRED smart meters do NOT.
6. The WMD create hacking opportunities for high tech home robbers.
7. The WMD create interference with other electrical and motion detector devices.
8. The WMD have started fires at homes and businesses.
9. The WMD are still suspects in the ignition of the San Bruno Fire & Explosion.
10. The WMD emit pulsed RF signal radiation 24/7 without a shut off switch. Levels of that radiation, even lower than emitted by WMD, have been observed in laboratory tests (in test tubes and the brains of lab rats) to cause CELL DAMAGE, DNA CHAIN BREAKS, BREACHES IN THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER.
11. The WMD emit pulsed radiation approximately 25,000 times per day, contrary to PG$E’s claims.
12. The WMD radiation will be absorbed by and pass through our children’s bodies and brains without relief in our homes, even when they are sleeping.
13. The WMD will collect personal and intimate private information from our homes and PG$E Corporate Management, the same group that killed children in Hinkley California as documented in the Julia Roberts Erin Brockovich Movie, will be the caretaker of that information. PG$E Corporate Management says they won’t “Accidentally” allow our information to be stolen or lost, they won’t sell or sneak it to commercial organizations that desperately want it in order to know more about our intimate use to sell us things.
PG$E Corporate Management told the families in Hinkley California that the water was safe (EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW IT WAS NOT SAFE) so the children drank it, swam in it and showered in it and then had to have operations removing organs in their bodies and suffering terrible painful paths to their deaths.
These are the same PG$E Corporate Management that are attending our city council and board of supervisor meetings and holding “Education” meetings for customers.
The PUC and the utility company in Maine are already talking about actual options to Wireless meters after only a couple months of complaints from customers while “PG$E is still “Considering it after four years.” And of course PG$E is NOT including a single knowledgeable CUSTOMER in their “Considerations.”
These …are crimes against nature, children and humanity…
thank u Aaron Brock, Esq.thats what im finding to be the truth as well.the opt out farce is an elaborate extortion attempt AND it will not stop them from installing powerfull repeater antennea 3-6 places on your block,also exposing u to continuous microwave pulse.these crooks need to be stopped and fast.the frog population has already been extinct since install.we dont have much time.due to some”military drill”sept.26,27,2011,obama will be safely nestled in the deep underground military base under the denver international airport while we are put at DEFCON 1 status.i believe the “smartgrid”will be “attacked”then,and it will be blamed on a solar emp,or terrorists.they have everything in place.the money to be had marketing our intimate usage data,to marketers,insurance co’s,and security agencies,will keep these criminals fat for years to come.they already control our private properties it seems,the health choices we make for our families ,and now our privacies are being sold out from under us as well.i hope u dont mind if i repost ur comment.i amextremely ill from these meters and my life depends on stopping further deployment of this technology,and removal of the the tech they forcefully installed already.we have to educate the world fast.deployment has started in germany today.they plan to be worldwide in 2yrs,and theyre moving fast
Good job, Josh! I am continuing to be surprised at how easy this issue is to sway people to our side. Unless someone is involved in financial gain from these meters, it seems all we have to do is let them know what’s going on and they are with us. Our only real need here is to simply inform people of the facts. It helps that there are absolutely NO benefits to customers whatsoever. That would explain why utility companies are being so completely quiet and not informing anyone that the meters will be installed.
I hope a video of your talk will be coming soon–I look forward to it!
See my article in Control magazine expressing skepticism about smart meters:
http://www.controlglobal.com/articles/2007/237.html
I’m a BSEE with a PE in Control Systems. I’m also a patent holder and have over 30 years of industry experience as an engineer and an editor.
That is a very informative article. Basically, the only control the utilities will have is of compressor motors in air conditioner units, that is it, and it is strictly a voluntary choice, not mandated. Nothing else will ever be controlled. and these commands will not come from a so called “smart” meter at all, they come from a radio network and are received, by the thermostats. This is not interactive, it is one way only.
The biggest problem with the new meter program is the false advertising, the forced sale on 10’s of millions of people of devices that will not do one bit of good to save energy in a residential building.
The utility corporations are promoting these new meters as if they are some real sophisticated meter like an MV90 meter (do an internet search of MV90)
An MV90 meter has a built in modem to connect to a telephone line to send billing information to the utility company. It does not have a disconnect swith like the radio meters do, but the MV90 meters have an ethernet modem and a serial port to connect to a computer system and software that really does do sophisticated things. They perform wave form analysis to chart voltage sags and surges, eddy currents and transients. This information is very valuable for facilities engineers and managers. Power quality and condition can affect many things in transmitter sites, controls systems and batch plants. Like currency counters and pharmaceutical plants. The meters also can in real time show energy consumption. All this information stays in the building, it is not shared with the utility company, but it could be linked to a computer network to be viewed from a remote location.
The so called “smart” meters being foisted on the public now are very cheaply made, simple devices. They are capable of transmitting monthly total electrical use only, and the only thing interactive about them is that they can take a command from the utility company to disconnect power coming out of the meter. The meters do not control anything inside of the building, just the disconnect switch on the utility side.
It is the utility companies that are trying to market other automation systems that they call Home Area Networks. These are purchased and used by the customer only to monitor some large appliances sold with the communications devices that work with these systems, they do not send that information outside to the utility companies mesh and mobile phone networks.
The sooner that the public wakes up about this “smart” meter project, the more they will reject it as a flawed marketing project.
Residential customers don’t need these HAN systems at all, and probably most people will never buy them or have time to use them anyway.
Is this move about stopping smart electricity meters only or wireless billing in general? Just curious and thanks for your time
First, thank you Josh Hart for your research & information! I’m in a s.f senior building with a ada floor; PG&E are dastardly trolls. Is there a petition for san francisco to sign; or do I need to contact agencies directly; I really don’t care to speak with pg&e and put up with their glittering generalities glossing over real problems. What an insidious corporation! I am still in amazement sf was able to vote public power in; but meanwhile pg&e wants to kill us, slowly for some. vitriol
Hi Jane, Thanks for your comment — you are right on. We are way past the point of petitions- PG&E is almost 90% complete with their installation, and all the thousands of complaints and millions of citizens opposed has made little difference to state or federal government. If you want to protect your neighborhood from getting smart metered, you need to organize with your neighbors and refuse installation, together. You need to be ready to take non-violent civil disobedience to get in their way and refuse. We can advise on these matters- that’s what we do. E-mail info@stopsmartmeters.org
With all the more important things going on in this country and the world concerning energy, it is important for us to focus on what is going on in our own homes and communities too.
What it boils down to is, the power authorities have lobbied the government to implement the radio meter plan.
The power authorities have been given the privilege to sell power to the public making a huge profit and are very fortunate to have the monopoly that they do enjoy. There is no competition for them at all.
When the presidents signed the telecommunications act of 1996, passed bills to upgrade the power grid and authorized the radio meter deployment, it was all the work of the corporations. Obama doesn’t know a thing about the electrical energy business, he is just a puppet on a string who takes orders from the corporations that run the country. Obama does not know the difference between power generation, power distribution (the power grid) and the billing meters, he thinks that they are all the same thing. There are also many other people who have been brainwashed the same way by the corporations and their false advertising propaganda campaigns paid for by the ratepayers and us federal taxpayers.
The way the law reads now as has for decades, the power companies have the freedom to charge customers for energy used with billing meters. And with the telecommunications act of 1996, they can utilize wireless technology without any restrictions except for asthetics on their property or on private property with permission (usually a lease or bribe is paid to do this).
What they do not have is permission or a right to install their radio transmitting devices on peoples private property without permission, authorization or compensation to the owner !
In their zeal to eliminate meter readers, they have installed their corporate billing system that utilizes radio to transmit their billing data onto and into their customers privately owned equipment (meter mains). The power corporations really do not have a right to do this at all. Many people don’t want utility billing transmitters broadcasting into their houses and anywhere on their property, and have every legal right to refuse such an intrusion.
It seems to be the case all across the country, and their propaganda campaign has convinced many people that the new radio meters will somehow save energy, they won’t.
It is unfortunate for the rest of us who do not buy the corporate BS, but if some people want to let the power authorities have their way with them, it’s bad for everyone who doesn’t want radio transmitters on the properties nearby. But at least we have the right to refuse it on our own properties, and if enough of us do that, it will throw a monkey wrench into their grandiose plans to eliminate meter reading jobs.
There is no senate bill, law, or building code that dictates that we must let the power corporations put their transmitters on our private property, PERIOD ! That is effectively a taking of private property by fascist corporations.
And if someone does not want a transmitter on their private property, if the corporation does not remove it, then we WILL remove it and replace it with our own billing meter. And if the power authority moans, we will offer to phone in our monthly meter reading, saving them the expense of sending out a meter reader. And twice a year, we will allow PG&E to set up an appointment to read our meters, for this service PG&E is currently allowed to charge us $12 per year for 2 meter readings.
I urge everyone to not let PG&E bully you into falling for their lies, it’s all a bluff, and now they have been called on it.
RESIST, RESCIND and REFUSE !
I live in Glendale and am very concerned about this stupid device installed in my property without my knowledge and permisssion. I complained several times to my City Council and they are quiet. They are quiet, because they spent a lot of money and without obtaining any scientific facts installed them in our home. Now they have no choice but to fool the public and just play dirty politics. Unfortunately, most people are not even aware that these devices are installed in their home. I especially feel bad about the newcomers that are so busy to adjust to their new life and don’t speak English to even complain or do anything. There are people including myself that feel the negative effects of this device (lightheadedness, irritability, sleep disturbance, etc.)