Councilmembers Send Anti-Smart Meter Letter to Edison

Smart Meters requires smart users, or users that aren't involved in conspiracy theories. Similar to plastic bags that I subsidize or energy efficient light bulbs that are a great value, I expect this Smart program will soon go by the wayside and in its place more old technology; nuclear and carbon spewing power plants will be the direction in these United Crazies of America.

Smart meters are brought to by the same people who think we should -by law- be required to buy light bulbs from China...

SMART METERS LINKED TO CANCER.

Utility Companies based previous safety claims on World Health Organization (WHO).

But May 31 2011, WHO says Wireless Smart Meter radiation is linked to CANCER (possible human carcinogen – same as Lead, DDT, etc), and so it likely also damages bodies & brains (including children’s) in many additional ways sooner than cancer.

1. WIRELESS SMART METERS – 100 TIMES MORE RADIATION THAN CELL PHONES.
Video Interview: Nuclear Scientist, Daniel Hirsch, (5 minutes).
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/04/20...

2. WIRELESS SMART METERS – CANCER, NERVOUS SYSTEM DAMAGE, ADVERSE REPRODUCTION AFFECTS.
Video Interview: Dr. Carpenter, New York Public Health Department, Dean of Public Health, (2 minutes).
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?p=3946

3. THE KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE IN STOCKHOLM (the University that gives the Nobel Prizes) ISSUES GLOBAL HEALTH WARNING AGAINST WIRELESS SMART METERS.
2-page Press Release:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48148346/Ka...

4. Must – See 4-minute Video on Smart Meters (Not related to Health Issues)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...

SOME TRUTHS ABOUT WIRELESS SMART METERS.

1. The utility information generated by Wireless smart meters is NOT real-time and it is NOT formatted for customer use so it does NOT assist customers to use less energy or lower their utility bills. The information only assists the Utility Company to bill customers and shut off customer power remotely.

2. In countries where Wireless smart meters are being installed, energy use is NOT decreasing, customer UTILITY BILLS ARE INCREASING, there are problems with Security, Hacking, Electrical Fires & Electrical Interference.

The only "Green" in this program is the $$$ and wealth transferred from customers to the Utility Company.

Costs are already overrunning significantly and routinely laid onto the backs of customers. The meters cost hundreds of dollars each and ongoing utility rates are consistently increasing where Smart meters have been installed as Utility companies sing their praises.

Those doing actual cost-benefit analysis (i.e. attorney general of Connecticut) in lieu of blindly accepting the rhetoric of Utility companies are consistently rejecting Wireless smart meter programs.

3. The Utility companies are salivating over eliminating the jobs of the full-time-with-benefit meter reader employees and replacing them with phone operators in India and the Philippines who read scripts to customers over the phone for $4 per day with-NO-Benefits. And the savings are NOT passed on to customers.

4. Wireless smart meters transmit radiation 360 degrees approximately 23,000 times per day, every day, 24/7, at the rate of about one radiation transmission every four seconds or 15 per minute, NOT for only 45 seconds per day as Utility companies falsely advertise. (You can confirm this yourself by purchasing an emf analyzer for between $100 and $500 depending on the features and detail that you choose to monitor.)

Radiation transmissions from Wireless smart meters have the strength to travel well over a mile (and the radiation transmissions are most damaging at closer proximities) so it is also important to keep them off your neighbor’s homes.

5. Wireless smart meters are NOT mandated by the US Federal Energy Program, as California’s Utility Companies pretend.

6. 43 Cities & Counties in California have taken positions AGAINST Wireless smart meters and 13 have passed Ordinances prohibiting Wireless meter installation.

7. Every appliance has or will have its own electronic signature, so yes, Wireless smart meters will give your exact activity information to the utility company and the government will have access to every move you make in your home. Existing analog meters only provide total usage and therefore protect your privacy.

High-tech home robbers (and High-Tech Child Molesters) will also be able to hack this information and know exactly our habits and when we are not home (and When Our Children Are Home).

Thanks RobertWilliams...I think the last point about privacy and hacking is the kicker for me. Detailed and accurate information to the consumer is sorely lacking on this application. My cell phone is only used for a 100 minutes per month, transmitting at 1 watt, but right next to my head usually. The smart meter, at 1W (or more, some have shown) is basically continuous, day and night, and may even be retransmitting signals from my neighbors since it is a mesh network.

So you Tea Partiers, just how did the federal legislation to repeal the requirement to phase in energy efficient lightbulbs work out for ya'all there in Congress?
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blo...

But I do wonder why three council members, even those ones, would send their own individual letters and then want the collective city council to do that again. Are all are other city problems fixed now?

I would expect a reflexive, Tea-Party-line response toward Smart Meters from ign'nt bumpkins Self and Hotchkiss, but if Rouse affixed his signature to a letter concerned with "possible health effects from radiation exposure associated with smart meters." well, that separates him cleanly from the herd of thinking citizens...

... unless Rouse proposes a ban on cell phones in his restaurant and in City Hall for the same reasons; then we would see a bit of consistency in his politically panicked craziness.

And for my friend "sbindyreader" who seems swayed by the authoritative-sounding but hysteria-spreading commenter "RobertWilliams," may I point out:

Here are some other modern conveniences which share the same RF emission as the dreaded Smart Meters:

- cellphones
- baby monitors
- microwave ovens
- wireless laptops
- radios
- televisions
- pagers
- cordless telephones
- garage-door openers
- walkie-talkies.

There is much information easily available regarding Smart Meters. The Utility companies they have undertaken a huge advertising and public relations effort to fight this viral anti-technology backlash, and they are "hiding" all the facts and latest information all over their websites, such as here:
http://www.pge.com/myhome/customerser...

There is even an Opt-Out program, of which I happily endorse for the Luddites Among Us.

Smart Meters do broadcast radio frequencies, but not on the order you mention. Here's one of those inconvenient facts:

"The signal from a SmartMeter typically lasts between 2 and 20 milliseconds. These intermittent signals total, on average, 45 seconds per day. For the other 23 hours and 59 minutes of the day, the meter is not transmitting any RF."
http://www.pge.com/myhome/edusafety/s...

It's fascinating the Right Wing -- in the form of their news outlets, periodicals, and online sources -- have taken ill-informed health concerns and misinformation, added in a bit of Big Brother paranoia and anti-science sentiment, and now the "battle" against and "threat" of Smart Meters has a festering political aspect.

Along the way they have picked up the support of those fragile personalities prone to conspiracy theories as a governing philosophy.

I hear that smart-meters rearrange your furniture when you are away and replace all of your DVR recordings with hard-core pornography. It's true. I read it on a poorly-designed website.

The council members have a right to express their opinions as independent citizens. Implying that they speak for the council or the community at large is something else.

There are real social and economic impacts to consider - on meter readers, costs, privacy, etc. Those are balanced against long-term efficiency in electricity production and distribution, something our short-term council members would dismiss. Still, it is a debate worth having.

But their anti-RF argument is straight out of the urban myth cookbook. We live in a world of waves, the sun being the primary source. The Smart Meters transmit intermittently in a sliver of the 900 MHz band. So do cordless phones. So do walkie-talkies. Verizon and AT&T cell phones transmit between 800 and 1900 MHz - should the city ban all of those? Santa Barbara County sheriff's department radios transmit around 860 MHz, and the SBPD in the 150's and 460MHz. Do the worthy council members plan to shut their car radios down? And then there are wireless modems in many homes, and the WiFi hotspots beaming out radio waves at a whopping 2.4GHz. For these guys, seems like it's either tin foil helmets or NO COFFEE FOR YOU!

"Radiation transmissions from Wireless smart meters have the strength to travel well over a mile (and the radiation transmissions are most damaging at closer proximities) so it is also important to keep them off your neighbor’s homes."
-- RobertWilliams

That statement on its own is irresponsible. Every high-school science student knows radio waves obey the inverse-square law ... the power falls off inversely with the *square* of the distance. In other words, power diminishes drastically with distance. That's why a cell phone next to your head is much more of an issue than a cell phone across the room.

I'm all for informed debate, but the anti-Smart-Meter folks are taking an issue that should be based on science and using scare tactics.

This is such a non subject, what a bunch of blithering idiots. Smart meters will save me money, reduce emissions from large power plants, and allow me a way to really off set my annual electrical costs be selling solar to the power company for 30 cents in the day time and then using that power credit later in the day at 10 cents. Smart meters, smart people, not a bunch of scardy cat nimrods with no facts!

Since the smart meter was installed on my house, people have commented about my "healthy glow". Even when it's pitch black at night people notice my nice aura so what's the big deal about a little radiation?

Binky, it is ROWSE not Rouse like Louse.

But everything else in your comment is so so correct.

There are no health concerns or conspiracies in this story. It is just about money. SCE, like most businesses, is hurting and needs to find ways to bring in more revenue. Rather than raise the rates on all customers they are simply going to charge more for peak hour usage. They cannot do this without the new meters. SCE cleverly states that this will help you save money by not using energy during peak hours and they convinced at least one person who posted above. These new meters will not save anyone money and will dramatically increase the rates of businesses who have no choice but to operate during peak hours. No one will get cancer or die. The childeren will be safe. SCE will make more money, residential customers will pay a little more if they are adaptive, and businesses will suffer.

"(and High-Tech Child Molesters)"

OMG! No! Not CHILD MOLESTERS!

Wait.

How exactly does a child molester make use of any of the data from me smart meter?

I think we need a version for Godwin's law for "Think of the Children!"

"When Our Children Are Home"
--RobertWilliams

Worst of all, Smart Meters cause ECS, Excessive Capitalization Syndrome.

BTW, I'd sure like to read that letter. Is it available online? Has anybody seen it?

"I hear that smart-meters rearrange your furniture when you are away and replace all of your DVR recordings with hard-core pornography. It's true. I read it on a poorly-designed website. "

Not to worry, smart meters design better websites than the one you mention. I play poker with my smart meter, and lose every time.

Thank you Mr. Williams. Your scary comments about radiation exposure and “High-tech home robbers” and “High-Tech Child Molesters” are pretty funny. There’s got to be a decent screenplay (or song) in there somewhere.
I work closely with the water industry and have lived here in SB for 20+ years. I am very familiar with and have spoken at length both to a number of utilities and water & electric authorities that have adopted this technology as well as several of the different manufacturers of AMR/AMI systems (which are referred to here as “Smart Meters”). This is much ado about nothing and the “truths” claimed by Robert Williams are wrong, misleading & inaccurate. Smart Metering simply uses current technology to accurately measure, record & report back to the utility the amount of water or power being used at a specific address. If you use water or power at your home or business, you either generate the power on site and get the water from a well on your property or (like most of us) buy it from a vendor (the utility). They sell it, we buy it. The vendor has every right to measure how much of their product is being dispensed to your property so they can bill you accurately. The old meters most of us still have were installed decades ago and use technology invented in the 1930’s & 40’s. They were not designed to last 40+ years and are showing their age – the information they capture (which must be manually recorded by someone walking onto your property to read the meter) is increasingly inaccurate and under-reports actual use.

On the 'legal' side... do 3 members acting together in private to send a jointly-signed letter constitute a violation of the Brown Act?

So people worry about electromagnetic radiation from smart meters causing damage, but they ignore a more powerful source of EM radiation: cellphones. Stupid. EM radiation is everywhere: televisions and radios, for example. I'll say it again: stupid.

http://xkcd.com/925/

By the way, I tested the link Rich posted, and there is nothing to worry about, it's radiation-free.