DECOY DEPLOYMENT
Editor,
A Smart Plan? Ouch!
Here is how California skirts around the demands of concerned people regarding Smartmeter deployment. It is a two step process. Step on is the Decoy Deploy strategy.
In this phase, you take a representative from the industry that is to regulated and put him/her in charge (in this case, President Michael Peevey, ex executive of Southern Cal’s Con Ed.) He diverts all attention to his focus, in support of the industry he left, but clearly understands. Then this compromised leader allows the CPUC to ignore letters, testimony, and calls for many months while Smartmeters get deployed and his staff tell concerned residents they have no choice (just like PG&E staff.) When residents demand in record numbers an opt out option, blockade installations, demonstrate in front of the CPUC, plus cities and counties demand moratoriums, the CPUC finally stops parroting the Utility’s enforcement process, that the CPUC has set up for the Utility and demand the Utility to propose an Opt out option. It is important to note that at least in Northern Calif, in Ft Bragg, PG&E is saying they are working on a wired version many months back which is somehow forgotten. Meanwhile during all of this Smartmeters are being deployed in areas where cities and counties have claimed moratorium against the questionable devices. Also if a resident fails to mark his/her meter panel to say they do not want one, the Utility somehow forgets to read their wait (now opt out) list and deploys a meter on their property anyway.
Next the Utility produces an Opt out proposal that is clearly not acceptable to anyone (using the contested meter, 10x the cost of real meter reading and against the Smart Grid mandate that the PUC has issued.) Finally the CPUC set deadlines to talk about it and then stalls while the Utility deploys as quickly as possible. Unfortunately all those victims (AKA rate payers) get overcharged, have damaged electronics and have to find a safe place to live if the Smartmeter makes them ill, and it does. Viola! A great scam. Now all rate payers pay for the malfunctioning program and there is extra revenue for opt outs, who pay through the nose for meter reading which could be done by mail like those folks who live in the out back. Meanwhile, victim numbers grow, leaving not only sick people scrambling for safe shelter, but also poor people overcharged and kicked off power in the cold.
Are rate payers paying for malfunctioning stuff? How could that happen? Well rate payers paid for the Structure report that essentially tested the meters for accuracy, thanks to the ready-to-stamp-okay CPUC. Isn’t that the job of the company providing the meters? Shouldn’t CPUC/Utilities have examined the meters in operation where the problems were happening as requested for State Senator Dean Florez?
In a minor provoked reexamination of one 400% overcharging Smart Gas meter, CBS San Francisco reported that the PG&E technician found a meter error. Top PR person said it was the first problem of that kind on the same news report, but what about the rest of the problems? So then residents gang up and sue PG&E with various class action suits or take their case to the CPUC. Thus we come to Step two in avoiding the concerns of Californian residents.
Step Two, deals with the so called “state resident’s protection” regulation body that takes full responsibility for the issue, in this case the Calif. Public Utility Commission. Already we have the compromised President at the helm. Any class action suit on this issue gets deferred by judges to the CPUC. The so called resident protection body (CPUC) then says that the action is inappropriate and dismisses it. Why not, the CPUC doesn’t it like the complaints even though the complaints are framed with concerns that the CPUC bylaws and bill of rights for rate payers define. Yet it is a done deal. No complaints possible. No real representation. Ignore city and county governments, testimonies, letters, blockades etc. Essentially this is a fraud headed by an industry representative in regulatory clothing. Sadly it is nothing new to Americans.
The Smartmeter issue is complex in errors, bad and costly installation and poor regulation by compromised regulators, implemented here via dependable trustworthy PG&E, who has lost reports, poorly tested pipelines etc. Their track record on the Smartmeter deployment has been dismal alone.
Want to do something about it? I would recommend lobbying Governor Brown via a letter to the State Capital, Suite 1173. Sacramento, CA 95814. Let’s get some nonbiased folks on that board. Ask for Peevey’s removal and demand a moratorium on the installation of Smartmeters, leave the analog meters in place until this issue is properly reviewed by all concerned and impacted parties.