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Smart meters
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By Tribune-Review
Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, March 19, 2013
I intend to exercise my right to fight the forced installation on my house of a “smart meter” by my utility companies by performing an act of civil disobedience. The Pennsylvania Legislature made a big mistake by forcing me to have a device that endangers my health and my personal security.
The microwaves a “smart meter” continuously emits and receives are weapons-grade radiation, dangerous if not lethal to living things. The information a smart meter continuously broadcasts can be easily hacked by anyone driving by my house, so that all my personal habits of electrical use can be tracked and used against me by the wrong person.
My act of civil disobedience will be to chain and padlock my current gas and electric meters. I will not permit a smart meter to be installed on my house.
Not surprisingly, the state Public Utility Commission is on board with the industry line that smart meters are good, safe and green and that they save money. They are the opposite of these things.
The federal mandate for smart meters states a ratepayer is to be asked if he wants one. But our beneficent legislators left the choice part out of the law they passed. We are being ordered around like subjects — as usual.
There is a ship of hope sailing over the horizon. State Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland, is sponsoring legislation to allow people to opt out of smart meter installation. We need to inundate the Legislature and the governor with phone calls, faxes, letters, emails, tweets and in-person visits demanding that Reese's bills be passed without amendments or delay.
Show our civil servants who's boss. Stand up for your rights to good health and personal privacy.
Go to stopsmartmeters.org for more information.
Tom McCarey
Berwyn
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Connecticut Attorney General warns that the pilot results showed that smart meters had no beneficial impact on total energy usage or bill savings and that the advanced technology is very expensive; urges regulators to REJECT PLAN TO REPLACE ELECTRIC METERS. Chicago's Commonwealth Edison ran a test installing smart meters on 8,000 randomly selected households together with variable rates and rebates to encourage cutting back during peak usage. In the Crain's Chicago Business article Smart grid test underwhelms. In pilot test, it ws found that the expense was costly and the reduction was "statistically insignificant"
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