Santa Barbara County Takes Action After “Heavy Protest”

Before a packed house, Santa Barbara County Board takes action against "smart" meters as the fight spreads south

As reports of ongoing installations (using unmarked trucks) come in from the City of Santa Cruz, things are really heating up down South.  At a major hearing on Tuesday, attended by over 100 Santa Barbara County residents, the county government voted unanimously to demand a no-fee opt out and to investigate legal action and other remedies available to them to stop installations in their county, in response to “heavy protest.”  The movement has spread considerably in recent weeks, and a long list of local governments in Southern California now have the ‘smart’ meter issue on their agendas to take action.

After the two utilities that serve Santa Barbara County (PG&E serves the area north of the mountains; SCE serves the area to the south) gave rosy presentations about the meter “upgrade,” the public got their chance to respond.  Testimony from about 4 dozen people was 100% against the program.

One older German lady from Solvang broke down in tears, and told the Board that her elderly husband had been “catatonic” since the wireless meter was installed, and that he “spent much of his time outside” to avoid the pulses from the meter.  She said he can no longer live in their home and she does not know what she can do.

Following instructions from a concerned CPUC employee, she has covered their walls with several layers of aluminum foil, but this has not significantly improved the situation.

The inhumanity and brutality of the “smart” grid was on display for everyone to see on Tuesday and on several occasions utility executives winced as they heard testimony about the suffering that their system has caused.

After hearing testimony, the supervisors voted to send a letter to the CPUC and investigate what further options they may have.

You can watch the entire hearing online here.

Links to further media coverage of the event:

The Independent: Smart Meter Smack Down

Noozhawk: Smart Meters Generate Heavy Protest

Santa Maria Times: Supervisors hear Emotional Testimony

CA Political News: SB Folks Oppose Corruption Between Utilities and State Regulators

This entry was posted in Citizen rebellion, Democracy, Electro-Hyper-Sensitivity, PG&E, Santa Barbara. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Santa Barbara County Takes Action After “Heavy Protest”

  1. Amy O'Hair says:

    Goodness, who is this “concerned CPUC employee” telling folks to cover their walls in foil? Is that really a state governmental agency’s idea of “protecting the ratepayer”?

    Thank you, Josh, for making the trip!

  2. Redi Kilowatt says:

    Wow, cover your walls with aluminum foil ? Lovely, sounds very posh.
    If so many people oppose the program, why don’t the power companies try and do good for once.
    If they want to replace $430 million worth of perfectly good analog meters in PG&E with digital ones, that is a waste of resources, a very disgusting waste at that. But if they insist on installing new meters, that is a capital outlay, not a ratepayer necessity. That $2.2 billion should be refunded to the ratepayers, and be charged to the profits of the private shareholders instead.
    If so many people are opposed to adding more electronic smog to our state, then PG&E and all the other power companies should disable or completely remove the transmitters, at no cost to any ratepayers. And since we all have been paying for meter reading services for decades, there should be no additional charge to have any meter read by a human.
    I have worked at some old residences in Marin doing service upgrades, and I have seen evidence that at one time, there was NO ELECTRIC METER ON OR IN THE HOUSE ! They used to charge a flat rate. Granted that those houses had gas service also, and the service conductors were #8 AWG (40 amps). It would be interesting to find out the flat rate for a 40 amp service was back in the good old days, my guess is around $3 per month .

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