News & Analysis
California Recall ... Beginning of the End for Smart Meters?
PG&E BEGINS REMOVING 'SMART' METERS DUE TO HEALTH EFFECTS ... Widening Call for Immediate Return of Analogs; Disconnection of "Mesh" Wireless Network. SANTA CRUZ, CA—Just as PG&E enters the final phase of its deployment of wireless "smart" meters in California, the largest of the state's Investor Owned Utilities (IOU's) has reversed course, quietly beginning to replace the 'smart' meters of those reporting health impacts with the old trusty analog version. Consumer rights and health groups immediately seized on the news, demanding that millions of Californians unhappy with their new wireless meters get their analogs returned immediately at no cost. 'Smart' meters are new wireless utility meters being installed as part of the "smart" grid initiative, spearheaded by technology firms and backed by the Obama administration and the Department of Energy. Promises ranging from lower utility bills to enhanced renewable generation capacity have failed to materialize, with widespread reports of higher bills, privacy violations, fires and explosions, and commonly reported health impacts such as headaches, nausea, tinnitus, and heart problems associated with powerful wireless transmissions. – Press release from StopSmartMeters.org
Dominant Social Theme: Smart meters are very helpful for a green planet. So what's the fuss?
Free-Market Analysis: When we first wrote about these evil "Smart Meters" well over a year ago, they weren't receiving much attention. But we saw them as part of a broader plan of the Anglosphere power elite to continue their quest for control over every part of people's lives. We figured the deployment of Smart Meters would go forward for several years without much resistance but we were wrong.
The Smart Meter craze has been positioned as a subdominant social theme by the elites: There are too many people, not enough power and we need to control every aspect of our energy existence and use. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. You can see some of our articles here: "Smart Grid: Edge of the Authoritarian Wedge" and "Technocracy".
The world is swimming in energy – and oil, as a matter of fact. We've reported on the statement of one of the Forbes brothers of magazine fame that the US has enough oil domestically for centuries of use, but that discoveries and exploitation have been artificially reduced by "environmental" regulations and federal land ownership. The US fedgov owns about one-third of America's lower 48, mostly in the Midwest.
But far sooner than we figured, it seems the Smart Meter backlash has arrived. Turns out that people don't like the considerable hikes in their bills once Smart Meters are installed. Nor do they enjoy the health ramifications that are apparently involved, either. Thus we were both surprised and gratified to receive this press release from StopSmartMeters.org, detailing considerable pushback to the deployment of Smart Meters in California. Here's more from the release:
Widely disparate political groups- from members of the Green Party to the Tea Party and Occupy protesters have attacked the program, and dozens of grassroots organizations have sprouted up over the past several months to fight what they call an undemocratic, unconstitutional and dangerous assault on people in their own homes and neighborhoods.
Dozens of people have been detained or arrested for peaceful civil disobedience and even simply speaking out against deployments. In California, more than 47 cities and counties have demanded a halt to installation, and a dozen local governments have passed laws prohibiting the controversial technology. The 'smart' meter issue has further angered a public already seething at the utilities over repeated gas explosions, safety breaches at nuclear reactors, and an increasingly extortionate rate structure.
Word of California's 'smart' meter nightmare has spread across the country and around the world, prompting some utilities to place smart meter plans on hold, and recently Nevada's PUC to call for investigations into the health effects and other smart meter problems. Now in a dramatic turnaround that could signal the beginning of a widespread recall of wireless 'smart' meters, on October 28th PG&E re-installed a classic spinning disc analog meter on the home of Santa Cruz, CA resident Caitlin Phillips, who had been suffering headaches and other symptoms from her 'smart' meter.
The move comes in response to verbal directives from the California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, who recently told members of the public that the utility "will provide for you to go back to the analog meter if that's your choice." The CPUC has been slow to respond to thousands of ordinary citizens reporting health effects from the new meters.
When a Wellington Energy installer (contracted with PG&E) came to install a smart meter at her home, Caitlin asked the installer to get off her property and not install, because of what a neighbor had told her about possible health damage and privacy violations. "When I returned home later, I discovered a smart meter on my house. That night I awoke to severe anxiety, headache, and buzzing in my teeth, and realized the new smart meter was on the other side of the wall from my bed."
Caitlin reported her experience to PG&E and the CPUC, who both declined to rectify the situation. When the symptoms persisted, Caitlin sought the assistance of the Scotts Valley based group Stop Smart Meters! who provided an analog meter and referred her to a professional who could help her remove her 'smart' meter. As soon as the analog was installed, Caitlin's symptoms disappeared.
Frustrated and outraged about her treatment by the utility and the PUC, Caitlin travelled to San Francisco to speak at a commission meeting on Oct. 20th. About a week later, PG&E crews were at her house replacing her temporary analog meter with a brand new official PG&E analog meter. This is believed to be the first time PG&E have willingly replaced an analog meter on the home of someone suffering from health effects.
An "opt-out" proceeding overseen by an Administrative Law Judge is underway at the CA Public Utilities Commission, yet those suffering (in some cases severe) health impacts have been stuck in limbo as utilities refuse to remove the harmful meters upon request- until now.
"There are hundreds of thousands- if not millions- of people suffering in their homes from forced 'smart' meter radiation," said Joshua Hart, Director of the grassroots organization Stop Smart Meters! "The utilities and PUC's must respond promptly to all requests that analogs be returned. The alternative is that people will increasingly turn to independent professionals to remove unwanted 'smart' meters from their homes, a reasonable action we assert is within our legal rights. Protecting your family's health is not tampering."
PG&E and other utilities have also been responding to health complaints by replacing wireless 'smart' meters with digital meters that are "wireless-ready." These digital meters have been associated with health problems from "dirty electricity" frequencies that pass into a home via the electrical wiring.
These "trojan horse" meters have been roundly rejected by those who report continuing health impacts after installation. Susan Brinchman, Director of San Diego based Center for Electrosmog Prevention. said "At this point, the burden of responsibility is on the utilities to demonstrate that any new meter they want to install on our homes is safe. Communities have the right to retain analog meters at no extra charge.
Smart Meters are an outgrowth of M. King Hubbert and the so-called Technocracy movement that was prominent in the mid-20th century. Hubbert is, of course, also the inventor of the concept of "Peak Oil" – the idea that oil production will at some point peak and then gradually begin to subside.
Is it any coincidence that Hubbert, a believer in the Platonic idea of the rule by a few wise men over the many, also invented the ridiculous notion of Peak Oil? It is evident and obvious to anyone who bothers to give even a few minutes of study to the issue that the Anglosphere power elite has been plotting this gambit for nearly a century now.
Peak Oil was supposed to be the problem. Smart Meters were supposed to be the solution. The idea was to figure out exactly what people were doing as regards their energy habits and then tax them and regulate them.
The idea that a handful of men can force billions to do their bidding is a fairly ridiculous notion in our view. As their dominant social themes have proven less effective in the 21st century, the elites have turned to violence and war. Yet violence is not only an ineffective way of moving society in a certain direction, it is an unpredictable one.
The Internet Reformation is a wonderful thing. Ten or fifteen years ago, a movement to dump Smart Meters would likely never have seen the light of day. There would have been no way to disseminate the information even if one could have concluded that Smart Meters were not what the authorities were claiming they were.
Conclusion: That a backlash against Smart Meters could have come so soon is further proof of our observation regarding the new communication technology: It is a process, not an episode.
l 
|
You must be a site member to submit suggested edits or post feedback. In addition to submitting edit suggestions and posting feedback, your Free Membership to The Daily Bell gives you access to our Member Zone where you will discover a plethora of other member benefits. Want to learn more? click here |
|||||
|
|
||||
 |
Posted by Widemouth on 11/09/11 01:12 AM
Great article. Please find some additional supportive information. Smart Meters - something to be afraid of? Click to view link
|
Posted by angelo on 11/07/11 10:02 AM
This sounds as if it has been written by the same person/s who have been running around for years screaming about one conspiracy theory after another. From my perspective (amendable if offered sound data) it seems the the entire cosmos is awash in energy; even the "emptiness" we call space is being shown to be composed of worm holes, "string" and enough energy to keep the universe expanding outward. In the midst of this immense energy to run scared from a "smart" meter seems to me to be the height of ignorance. Please excuse me if I do not get excited about the subject.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Oh, Angelo, you cynic, you. Take that skepticism of yours and turn it round, and you may find yourself understanding the world a little bit better ...
|
Posted by Charlie on 11/05/11 04:53 PM
Gotta love that subtle name "smart meter". LOL. Like Operation Iraqi Freedom or whatever it was. Duuuhhh, okayyy.
|
Posted by richo270 on 11/05/11 04:51 PM
While I do appreciate this article, and would not use a smart meter, there is a safe alternative for those who want to lower their energy use, the hook that they tell you to get you to use them.
The smart and safe way is to get something called a Home Electricity Monitor. It is an inexpensive device that you install in you own breaker box, and, with a remote monitor, you get to see in real time exactly what the current amount of power you are using. It does not broadcast anything to anyone, only to you. Research has shown that people who use them reduce their electrical bill from 10-20 per cent. My research to date has shown me that the TED model and others of these type are the best ones.
|
Posted by R on 11/04/11 11:12 AM
And there are also "issues" with so called "Broad Band". The FCC and their retained cronies have been caught making use of "Selective Data" and generally fabricating the potential spectrum interference measurement results of broadband over cable and copper wiring. It is obviously corruption to favor certain entities.
|
Posted by dontforgettoremember2 on 11/04/11 06:46 AM
Hi .
Great show on 'EdgeMediaTV' last(Nov3rd)-Night re; 'The Bosnian Pyramids'.
No need for meter's there.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks, but there are considerable questions about the "Bosnian Pyramids," so far as we know ...
|
Posted by tom jefferson on 11/03/11 11:41 PM
"Anglosphere" ?? This pretty much destroys the credibility of the author of the article.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Click on the term and read the definition. Why don't you argue with facts instead of making snap judgments?
|
Posted by Ann Marie on 11/03/11 10:12 PM
This is wonderful news!
PG&E has been hounding me until quite recently.
My meters are inside my building, so they have to get permission to enter. (Never!)
Many thanks to The Daily Bell and keeping us up-dated on this perfectly dreadful situation!
 |
Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 11/03/11 09:21 PM
They could but one of the functions of the smart meters is to record usage by time of day because peak electricity usage determines how much generating capacity needs to be built. This is transmitted to the meter reader as they drive by the residence. If the information is sent via the supply cables there is no need of a meter reader and therefor no need to record the information. It can be sent in real time. Every time you turned on or off something the power company would know. Finding out what kind of electrical device is in use is not that difficult. Privacy completely gone. Britain has for decades used their postal system as an integral part of their national security. Smart meter use without wireless would devolve into power companies becomming spys, if not for governments then for others, and probably for governments and others. Orwell and Huxley would be rightfully horrified.
|
Posted by Molly56 on 11/03/11 02:11 PM
LOL... this kind of lower level corruption, inefficiency, cronyism and frank stupidity (not to mention a healthy dose of the desire to "stick it to the man" by the proletariat) just might be our salvation, in the end...
|
Posted by Molly56 on 11/03/11 01:29 PM
Thanks; and for those who are multitasking, an easy listen to Patrick Wood explaining it to some newbies:
Click to view link
I hope that more people will emphasize that the real Trojan horse in this is that this will be a global currency, not just a scientific way to monitor and regulate energy use. Some may not make that connection; especially engineers who may be intrigued and gung-ho on the technical/efficiency aspect of it. One has to emphasize that "energy" will be interchangable with "income" to see how much of a slave system it really is.
|
Posted by JM on 11/03/11 01:29 PM
Read Dr. Nick Begich's book "Controllingthe Human Mind".
Click to view link
Then see if the dots connect:
Dot #1: Smart Meters
Dot #2: Population control (Agenda 21)
 |
Posted by rossbcan on 11/03/11 01:24 PM
As a design engineer, I can state as a fact that, more often than not, the "best" (functionality, cost effective) design choices are not always made.
Somebody in "management" may have "buddies" whose goods / services they favor, or, someone in "procurement" may be bribed. In my experience, entire designs had to be re-worked to accommodate these "choices" by the uninformed and biased.
As to powerline data transfers, each and every transformer must be bridged by data repeaters (cost, reliability) and, the bandwidth shared between all meters on a circuit, leading to either very low aggregate performance or, some sort of neighborhood concentrator required to bridge to higher bandwidth such as telco infrastructure.
IMHO, the best choice would have been to share residential phone line and do some sort of staggered modem burst transfers in the wee small hours of the night, or, perhaps share the cellular SMS transport layer. But, I, for one would have "accidentally" tripped and disconnected the datalink. And, perhaps the telco's wanted too great a "cut" for this?
Human factors are very important in engineering, especially systems, where people are "part of the loop".
IMHO, utilities made a strategic business error by not deploying high speed fibre as part of smart meters along their "rights of way", directly competing with telcos as bandwidth providers.
 |
Posted by DarbyJie on 11/03/11 12:46 PM
Here is a link to the substantive August Forecast article concerning the Smart Grid Agenda.
Click to view link
|
Posted by Molly56 on 11/03/11 11:56 AM
Here is a better link to the same article content with better feedback from readers. The land angle is interesting.
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
Yes, thanks. Think we participated in this article ...
|
Posted by PCRoger on 11/03/11 11:54 AM
Why do smartmeters even use a hazardous, complicated, wireless mess for communication?
Power companies have the capability (and some do) sell and deliver broadband over the copper electrical service wiring (with additional infrastructure to be sure).
Could they not achieve the same results without using wireless?
Reply from The Daily Bell
Maybe someone else can answer you question; we are not competent to comment on it ...
|
Posted by Molly56 on 11/03/11 11:46 AM
For those who want a quick summary of how "smart meters", global warming, technocracy, the NWO and global currency all connect, here's an interesting background article:
Click to view link
I think the whole ediface has crumbled, at least for this generation... let's hope so.
|
Posted by rossbcan on 11/03/11 09:35 AM
Elite apocalypse NOW?
|
Posted by rossbcan on 11/03/11 09:34 AM
The pretext of "smart meters" has a basis in reality: load averaging
Because of baby boomer demographics, to invest in the electrical infrastructure to support this population hump will not have a long term payoff, leaving excess capacity and infrastructure investments with no return on investment unless the smaller population is gouged.
So, the "smart meter" premise is to charge much higher rates during peak demand hours, thus discouraging use by offering incentives to defer energy use to "off peak", a better use of resources. So far, so good.
BUT, like everything else monopolists do, they define private benefits to themselves, to the detriment of consumers:
a - Old meters had just one number, overall consumption, which is easily verified by consumers to catch utility errors / frauds. New meters (at least mine) still only display one number and the information regarding the time profile of usage is not accessible to consumers. This is an open invitation for utility "errors" / frauds, with no way to independently verify their claims. I do know that I have significantly altered energy usage to off peak but, my bills are significantly higher.
b - Old meters had no remote shutoff capability. New ones do, with the flick of a keyboard. This "power" is wide open to abuse, not just reducing the "cost" of manual disconnect due to delinquent billpayers. "Accidents" can now happen, disconnecting power to those the keyboard jockeys (and their controllers) don't like. During times of civil insurrection (as in soon / now), "arbitrary power" can blackout an entire area, including communications, media and use "power" as a carrot / stick bargaining chip. These "blackouts" can be falsely claimed to be "glitches".
Allowing analog meters back will at least introduce competition as those with "smart" meters compare billing notes with those who do not have them and force utilities to honestly pass on the off-peak savings promised.
Me, in the peoples republic of Ontario, Canada intend to go back to analog as soon as I am "allowed".
The negative health consequences of high powered RF have been adequately documented elsewhere.
And, of course, as utilities rollback "smart" meters, who do ya think is on the hook to pay for "their mistake"?
 |
Posted by Abu Aardvark on 11/03/11 08:13 AM
I love the smell of failing elite themes in the morning ...
