Smart Meters Letters & Videos - August 28, 2014 Letters: [Opt-out - BC] Hydro ‘storm’ is brewing by Jim Ervin - Burnaby Now - August 28, 2014: - burnabynow/opinion/your-letters/hydro-storm-is-brewing-1.1333238 (Please Comment & - burnabynow/contact-us) Dear Editor: Summertime and the livin’ is easy, as an old song goes. But is it just the lull before the storm for those of us who have chosen to keep our Analog Hydro Meters for health and safety reasons? BC Hydro says we’ll have to pay an extra fee for doing so by December or face disconnection. Hydro has sent out letters suggesting that we pay this extra $32.40 ($36.00 with tax in my case) voluntarily per month. But why won’t they include it as a part of our monthly bill under the equal payment plan? Could it be because they know this fee is extortion and extortion is a crime? They’ll tell you that they need this extra money in order to read the meter (something which they’ve always managed to do previously at no extra charge). But my meter is read only bi-monthly and estimated every other month. So the fee is charged whether the meter is read or not. Furthermore, Hydro is violating Section 26 of the Utilities Commission Act, which promises us fair and reasonable rates for all their customers. This also means that their not so independent friends in the B.C. Utilities Commission are disregarding their own rules. Jim Ervin, Burnaby [Bills - Amherstburg, Ontario] Smart meters not such a smart idea by Mary Cirino - The Windsor Star - August 28, 2104: - blogs.windsorstar/open-newsroom/letters/smart-meters-not-such-a-smart-idea (Please Comment) I am a small-business owner in the Oldcastle area and received a call from Hydro One on Aug. 16 requesting that we call in a reading of our smart meter. We later discovered that our meter has not been read for 2½ years. I was contacted by phone from Hydro One letting us know that our bill for August would be $1,927. Our previous bills for the last 2½ years have been approximately $300 a month. After speaking with three different representatives, one being a supervisor, I was told that our bills have been “estimates” because our smart meter has not been transmitting correct information for the past 2½ years. We were assured that they have been working to correct the problem for 2½ years. I was told we have had the same meter since August 2011 but didn’t start having problems with readings until June 2012. I believe that’s when the meter reader no longer came to read the meters. As a business owner, I cannot go back to a customer 2½ years later and ask for payment on something that was not billed properly so how does Hydro One get away with this? I would like to know as a consumer why it’s our problem that our smart reader was not transmitting correctly. Who takes responsibility for the meters not working properly? As far as I’m concerned, these meters and the people who govern these meters are not so smart. MARY CIRINO, Amherstburg [Seattle, Washington, USA] What’s so smart about the smart grid? by Jordan Van Voast - Real Change - Vol: 21 No: 35 - August 27, 2014: - realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9324 For more than a decade, the city of Seattle, led by the professionally polished City Light CEO Jorge Carrasco — the city’s highest paid employee — has been aggressively pushing the so-called smart grid. In the summer of 2013, at a series of neighborhood informational meetings seemingly designed to deflect public concerns about health, privacy and democracy, City Light trumpeted the supposed benefits of a program called the “Advanced Metering Initiative” (AMI). In brief, the program is tightly wrapped in the “green” language of sustainability, reduced atmospheric carbon output and greater energy efficiency — laudable goals on the surface. However, a growing number of individuals who question the logic and architecture behind the smart grid are uncovering a very different picture. That picture consists of increased costs to consumers, time-of-use billing that adversely impacts the working class, zero energy savings, large corporations that scheme for great control and profit and a slick campaign to discredit health concerns regarding the safety of radio frequency technology. The spin is reminiscent of the fossil fuel lobby’s well-funded campaign to discredit the reality and seriousness of global warming. Under City Light’s plan, each house, apartment building and business in Seattle will be refitted with one or several smart meters, a radiofrequency utility device with two-way wireless send -and-receive capability. A growing body of independent research, such as found in the BioInitiative 2012 Report and the award-winning documentary “Take Back Your Power,” reveals evidence of biological harm due to radiofrequency fields in general and smart meters in particular. There are also serious concerns regarding trampling of the constitutionally protected right to privacy and of the economic costs being passed on to ratepayers with no actual energy conservation. People interested in learning more are invited to attend a screening of the film “Take Back Your Power” at Town Hall on Sat., Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. Jordan Van Voast, Safe Utility Meters Alliance (SUMA) – NW | Seattle Videos: (video 1:57:58) [EMR - Health] LSL - Heartbeat of the Okanagan - The Dangers of Wireless Meters / Electro-Polution by Kevin Proteau - YouTube - August 28, 2014: - youtube/watch?v=bnQ3SFTmch0&feature=youtu.be&list=UUHIH21uxoX1YzUGMJJUzrFg (Featuring Dr. Ross Anderson: Environmental consultant) (video 00:29) [Fires - Safety - Lakeland, Florida, USA] Meters overheating, to be replaced in Lakeland by Holly Bounds - wfla - August 28, 2014: - wfla/story/26394655/meters-overheating-to-be-replaced-in-lakeland (More than 10,000 smart meters will soon be replaced in Lakeland due to their possibility of overheating. The meters of concern have the remote disconnect feature and have RD on the outside label. There have been six cases since their installation in 2011 of remote disconnect meter fires.... only two of those fires are believed to be from moisture intrusion and overheating. Thats enough, he said, to take the precautionary measure to replace the affected meters....The manufacturer is providing the new meters and Lakeland Electric is providing the labor....)
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 08:00:06 +0000