Landmark Smart Meter Forum in Santa Barbara on April 28th
1. Landmark Smart Meter Forum in Santa Barbara on April 28th
Partisanship is Set Aside in Consumer Revolt
What: GET SMART Town Hall Forum – First Smart Meter Forum in Southern California
When: Thursday, April 28 @ 7pm
Where:Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort – 633 E Cabrillo Blvd – Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Cost: Free with Optional $5 Donation for Parking
RSVP: Required/Open to the Public
Info: 805.967.7520 or dollymadison@sbtp-cs.org
2. Northern California Fight Moves South – Battle between Corporate Giant Public Utility Companies and Angry Consumers Intensifies -Forum Presented by a Coalition of Consumer Advocates
As consumers’ rage accelerates over being forced to pay for replacement of their reliable analog utility meters with wireless smart meters without being informed of risks and costs, Santa Barbara’s GET SMART Townhall Forum offers answers to audience questions, along with eco-safe and consumer-friendly options. The nonpartisan event comes in the wake of thirty-eight (38) California communities and the State of Connecticut (among others) halting smart meter installation, in tune with mounting nationwide concern over citizen complaints and scientific research. The topic is timely for Santa Barbara, because Southern California Edison has indicated that it plans to install the increasingly controversial smart meters throughout the area the first of 2012 or sooner.
The forum – which is the first of its kind in Southern California – features a distinguished panel of national experts who will reveal up to the minute information about the meters that critics purport to be rationing devices and a threat to health, prosperity, constitutional rights, the environment, property values, privacy and national security. Panelists include Supervisor Anthony Farrrington, (D-Lake County, CA) ; Dr. Mark Toney of TURN, Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen, Washington, DC; Cindy Sage of Sage Associates, Orlean Koehle, Author & Speaker; Kenneth Devore of Edison International; and Joshua Hart of Stop Smart Meter. Free and open to the public, the educational forum will be held on Thursday, April 28, at 7pm, at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort. RSVP Required to 805 967.7520 or dollymadison@sbtp-cs.org. Organized by a coalition of community advocates and facilitated by Santa Barbara Tea Party. Please Note: The views of the moderator, emcee, speakers and panelists do not necessarily reflect the views of SBTP, and vice versa.
3. What’s a Smart Meter? If you don’t know, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger.
The press has been unusually silent about Smart Meters, and it is not in the interest of the utility companies to tell you what these meters are and why they exist, because, once they know, the majority of Americans rebel against them. (There are protests every weekend throughout the country. The State of Indiana banned them, and 38 California communities have halted installation.)
Basically, your old electric meter that has that spinning wheel that a meter man reads every month will be replaced without your permission by a high tech meter that you will be forced to pay for. Edison calls it smart because the meter can record the electricity you are using by the minute and hour because of its technology. That translates to billing you every hour. And you will be charged at a higher rate on an hourly basis during “peak times,” that is: when more people in your grid are using electricity.
If you look at your bill, you will see tiers, actually five of them. With the old meter, if you stayed below your baseline in total usage during the month, you would not be jumped up to the next tier. With the new meter, you can see how that any minute you could, jump up to a higher tier, and that makes bills go up and sometimes skyrocket.
That smartness also means the meter can turn your electricity off or down remotely. Future plans include transmitters on all electricity-dependent household appliances, which will give your smart meter free rein to remotely shut down or off whichever appliance whenever the power company chooses.
That’s only the beginning of the new way you will experience your electricity usage, and it’s why we feel that it is necessary to present an event to let our fellow citizens know.
SM programs ares based on a demand modification model, and the intended and unintended consequences are brutal Critics say that they are a menace to your health, wallet, property values, privacy, safety, national security, and the environment.
Sierra Club of San Francisco leads other ecologists in demanding EIRs be done and Smarter and safer options are offered.
We hope you will come to the Forum. The panelists are some of the best experts on the subject in the country, and, once you hear what they have to say, you will be able to converse with your neighbors and friends confidently about them. (We also have invited the head of Edison’s smart meter program.)
If you would like to attend our event on 4/28, please RSVP. There is limited seating, and we expect many.
