Florida Fights Back Against Utility Extortion

Screen Shot 2014-02-06 at 7.24.39 PMMore than 100 Florida Power & Light (FPL) customers who don’t want a smart meter and don’t want to pay extra to keep their old analog meters have filed two separate 60-page petitions with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). On Jan. 7th, the PSC gave FPL approval to charge customers who decline a smart meter a one-time $95 enrollment fee and a $13 monthly surcharge beginning in June.  Florida’s “smart” meters (pictured on the right next to a traditional, safe analog meter) wirelessly relay customer use information and are now considered FPL’s standard meter.

According to Marilynne Martin, lead organizer opposing these fees:

“We have approximately 40,000 customers who are on a postpone list or barricaded their meters. They do not want it. They did not consent to this on their home. FPL is retaliating by creating these high fees.”

No doubt about it- things are heating up in Florida and in other US states, as utilities and their commissions try to quash a growing public rebellion against “smart” meters driven by privacy, health, safety, and financial concerns.

Documents submitted to the FPSC can be downloaded at the links below in pdf:

FL PSC filing 00582-14

FL PSC petition for evidentiary hearings 00583-14

This entry was posted in Citizen rebellion, Democracy, Fires, Florida, health effects, legal issues, neighborhood organizing, Smart Grid. Bookmark the permalink.

19 Responses to Florida Fights Back Against Utility Extortion

  1. Pingback: Florida Fights Back Against Utility Extortion | Stop "Smart" Meters, Florida!

  2. Mia Nony says:

    Check out the upside down and backwards reporting in the following link below. This report, just in.
    (Moses and the burning bush?)
    Can you believe the utility actually maintains that the smart meter right beside the bush was not a hazard, but instead was what saved them from conflagration by reporting to the utility that “something was not normal”?
    So first you have to accept that there was a dried up hydrangea bush right beside the smart meter which mysteriously spontaneously ignited flames in the middle of winter. Does this story raise the larger question of how the frequencies enabled by and generated by smart meters are known to dry things out, heat them up and kill them off? Nope. Instead they convinced this couple that the smart meter was smarter and was not in any way a suspect connected to the fire but instead was a source of help which saved them from a dry bush which spontaneously burst into flames and could have burned down their home.
    You can watch the video on Firefox if the plug-in is blocked on other browsers
    http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/24657340/epb-smart-meter

    • Terri Keller says:

      Thanks for bringing that to everyone’s attention! I left them a little note: “Smart” meters are extremely dangerous. They emit radiofrequency radiation (RFR) from hundreds to thousands of times a day. RFR is already causing cancer of the eye, ear, and brain for cell phone users. “Smart” meters can emit over FORTY TIMES as much radiation as a cell phone! They also create excessive EMF, which results in transients, or “dirty electricity” through your home’s wiring. In Decatur, GA, the “smart” meter ruined a home’s wiring to the tune of $11,000! They cause many more fires than they warn of (which is possibly ONE, so far, if this story is to be believed). They are completely hackable. A criminal with a laptop and some knowhow can not only read it to see if anyone is home – he can turn it off from a distance with a cell phone. A former employee of a “smart” meter manufacturing firm says that “Spy and Fry” meters can charge up to SEVEN TIMES more than they should on your power bill. They’re so cheaply made that they malfunction all the time, according to Don Baker. So this dubious story, involving a no doubt lovely, sweet couple, should not convince anyone to have a digital meter on their home. Please protect your family and home, and hang a sign on your safe analog that says “DO NOT REPLACE METER. We refuse the ‘smart’ meter due to health, privacy, and safety issues.” Hang that below the analog where both can be read. Be truly smart – just say NO WAY to the “smart” meter! Please visit http://www.stopsmartmeters.org for more information.

  3. C. Carpenter says:

    How do I join this protest? I just got a notice from FPL, telling me that they intend to charge me a one-time “enrollment fee” of $95, plus $13 every month for the privilege of keeping my analog meter. I want to fight this!!

  4. Terry Rocks says:

    Where do we sign the Petition?
    Please post a link so more can sign the petition. I will sign it and have at least 10 others that will. Just discovered your blog and am glad we are not alone….this is absurd what they are doing! Welcome to the new world.

  5. yvette cohen says:

    Can’t get a live person on the phone to tell them that I’m not interested in the “smart meter” and the costs involved. What to do????

  6. Nils says:

    The Power companies have saved millions of dollars replacing workers that read the meters with smart meters, and on top of the millions they have saved they still charged me 95.00 one time fee and 13.00 a month. This is criminal just like our Administration. It all trickles down from the top. But ! it is now time to clean house and take out the TRASH. ” Live free or Die ! “

  7. Richard Thripp says:

    Supply (SMPS) Dirty Electricity ~ When current flows through the wiring of a building it generates a surrounding electro-magnetic field that radiates outward all around the wires at right angles to the direction of the current’s flow and reaches out into the room. It is well known that switching power supplies can generate spikes of so-called electromagnetic interference (EMI), or high frequency transients, which then travel along the wiring in the walls, radiating outward in the wiring’s electromagnetic field. Such spikes are known as ‘dirty electricity’ and can be conducted to a human body that is within the range of the radiating field. This function is on all smart meters used by all utilities and is on constantly, 24/7.

  8. Richard Thripp says:

    [For more on dirty electricity check out Dr. Sam Milham’s website and his new book, “DIRTY ELECTRICITY: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization” and watch this blog for our in depth interview with Dr. Milham – coming soon. ] One of the engineers explains it this way: “Extensive measurements have demonstrated that all of the meters measured so far, including ABB, GE, and Landis Gyr, emit noise on the customer’s electric wiring in the form of high frequency voltage spikes, typically with an amplitude of 2 volts, but a frequency anywhere from 4,000 Hertz, up to 60,000 Hz. The actual frequency of the phenomena is influenced by the devices that are plugged into the customer’s power. Some houses are much worse than others, and this observation has been confirmed by PG&E installers that have talked to us.”

  9. Richard Thripp says:

    ☭ ☭ ☭ Concerning “smart” meters: Dr. Martin Blank, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University: “Cells in the body react to E.M.F.’s as potentially harmful, just like any other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals. The D.N.A. in living cells recognizes electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure [not covered by current outdated laws]; and produces a biochemical stress response. The scientific evidence tells us that our safety standards are inadequate, and that we must protect ourselves from exposure to E.M.F. due to power lines, cells phones and the like, or risk the known consequences. The science is very strong and we should sit up and pay attention.”

  10. Richard Thripp says:

    “There’s no one in charge of security for the grid. They’re constructing a smart grid that will make it easier for you or me to call our homes on our cell phones and turn down our air conditioner on a hot afternoon. But that may well mean that a hacker in Shanghai can do the same thing with his cell phone, or worse. The so-called smart grid that is as vulnerable as what we’ve got is not smart at all. It’s a really, really stupid grid.” — former Director of the C.I.A., Robert James Woolsey, Jr.

  11. karen harvey says:

    Please add me to this lawsuit
    Please contact me 3212161070 leave a mssg i will return your call

    Iv been fighting having this meter on

    When i called today spoke to a mgr..she disclaimed my claims. When i asked her to mail me proof she said i had to go thru tje non meter dpt

    When i asked to be transferred to them..,she said that dpt doesnt exist and there was no one to talk to

    Basically…it was pay them their blood monies……to keep my electricity on

    Or have the unsafe unlawful meter on

    Or refuse to pay and have my electric shut off

    Im dusabled in a wheelchair

    If my electric is shut off..so is my water

    They are hitlers out for blood and must be stopped

  12. Smart Meters can be hacked…..Encryption is optional.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeoCOVXRX0w

    Has anyone tried to force Gulf Power to allow opt out program?

    California PUC made it requirement years ago to allow an opt-out thay cant exceed $75 one time charge and cant’s exceed $10/month in fees.

  13. J says:

    I am also trying to opt out in Florida from Gulf Power. Would appreciate any success or failure stories so that I can navigate my way through this mess and quickly get this thing removed.

  14. MB says:

    Local power company TALQUIN ELECTRIC wants additional 40.00/mo to NOT have a SMART meter- AFTER a initial fee(have not seen the amount). So that is additional 480.00/yr. So we have to PAY a supposedly member-owned company for this in addition to actual useage bill.

  15. Tina Bridges says:

    We have smart meters here in Florida, and it’s been making me sick since last year. I have seizures and really bad headaches.

  16. James Calfee says:

    My Gulf Power contact is: Bobby Cutler. Give Bobby a call, tell him that you would like to Opt Out of the Smart Meter. I am regularly sharing information with him and he is very nice and professional. But he needs to hear from more people on this topic. Free free to let him know James Calfee sent you. Bobby’s work number is: (850) 505-5006

    My full post is here: http://steemit.com/health/@jsc/hot-off-the-press-cece-doucette-speaking-on-the-emf-topic-which-includes-smart-meters

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