Video: “Smart Meter Hell in Sedona”

Posted on August 7, 2014 by admin

In this video, Marianna Heartsong describes what happened to her, her bees, and her chickens when Arizona Public Service installed 6 Smart Meters around her property last year.

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Smart Meter remote connect/disconnect switch — a possible fire hazard

Posted on August 4, 2014 by admin

There are many reasons for Smart Meter fires, based on investigations.

The most serious are problems inherent to the Smart Meters themselves or their operation.

Sage Associates Fire produced this report in July 2010

Portland General Electric is removing 70,000 Smart Meters which have a remote connect/disconnect switch because they say it causes a fire risk.

That switch is a common feature in AMI/Smart Meters and a selling point for utilities.

“We weren’t able to find evidence that this is a great deal for ratepayers,” said Sean Voskuhl, state director of AARP. “There’s a lot of interest in smart meters, but unfortunately PSO wasn’t able to back it up with facts.”

But AEP-PSO spokesman Stan Whiteford disagreed, saying the meters will cut costs associated with manual meter reading and allow for remote connects and disconnects.

http://www.bnd.com/2014/07/23/3315167/judge-considers-utilitys-plan.html

A heavy manual switch, that takes a great deal of strength, turns off power to a building. Yet, inside Smart Meters is a mechanism that supposedly is capable of doing the same thing.

Electrician Lance Houston wrote an article asking a number of important questions and calling for an investigation in 2011.

One of the novel features in the new meters is the incorporation of an internal disconnect switch that the power company purports safely disconnects/reconnects power to the dwelling it supplies by remote control. This disconnect feature is a new and significant change to the old style analog meters. The safety of the new disconnect feature is in question.

… The potential for arcing in the new disconnect feature should be carefully scrutinized. Incidents of fire are reason enough to halt installations.

http://1hope.org/hopeblog/unknown-safety-of-smartmeters-new-disconnect-switch/
Unknown Safety of New On-Off Switch in Smart Meters: CPUC Meter Safety Testing Confirmation Needed.

Norman Lambe, home adjuster in Los Angeles, California, warned of arcing and fires in articles he wrote in 2012.[i]

Patrick Wrigley, former PG&E employee, testified at a CPUC hearing in Santa Rosa in 2012.

I was a meter reader for nine and a half years with PG&E in the Marin office before I was illegally fired because I was not intimidated into being quiet with the problems I saw firsthand regarding smart meters’ inaccuracy.

The fact that PG&E knows that they do catch on fire when they are remotely turned back on when a customer who is delinquent in their bill finally pays their bill. These meters catch fire. They know it, and they are covering it up.

Many utilities, including PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E, have the remote connect/disconnect switch in all of their Smart Meters.

Surges, which occur when the power is turned back on, have also caused Smart Meter fires and caused the meters to explode off buildings.

This dangerous situation continues. Do you have a Smart Meter on  your home or business?

[i] http://www.examiner.com/home-and-business-in-los-angeles/the-not-so-smart-meter-1

http://www.examiner.com/article/something-is-still-wrong-with-the-smart-meters?

 

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Smart Meter emissions and the antenna effect

Posted on August 4, 2014 by admin

“The utility industry and government regulators have presented no evidence that smart meters are safe.  Moreover, the findings presented [below] confirm that these meters are unsafe despite the fact that they may appear to be operating within flawed FCC guidelines, in the isolation of the testing laboratory. “

From New York Safe Utility Meter Association

DEBUNKING THE UTILITY INDUSTRY MYTH ABOUT SMART METER SAFETY:

THE ANTENNA EFFECT

The utility industry’s argument that smart (AMR, ERT) meters are safe must be rejected, because it relies on FCC testing for radiofrequency (RF) interference, which is not a safety testing protocol, and flawed FCC radiation exposure guidelines.  The FCC testing for smart meters is done in an isolated laboratory, divorced from the context in which these meters are intended to be used, connected to the wiring in a home or business. 

We present below compelling technical and empirical proof that, when these meters are used as intended, they cause an antenna effect, inflicting great harm to occupants inside their homes and businesses.  When used as intended, smart meters that appear to be safe in the testing laboratory are lethal.

1.  An RF engineer’s technical report confirms that smart meters cause an antenna effect when connected to electrical distribution systems, resulting in extraordinary RF exposures that are significantly higher than those reported in isolated laboratory testing.

Stop Smart Meters New York (SSMNY) hired an RF engineering firm named Isotrope “[t]o evaluate the devices in situ” and to make “a field survey of the various emissions of concern, employing an array of electronic test equipment.”  Isotrope concluded, among other things, that the radiated- and conducted-emissions testing of electrical meters that was performed by the FCC “does not replicate actual conditions….” By contrast, when Isotrope tested a meter in usage as intended, connected to a home wiring grid, “the conducted emissions from the meter at 915 MHz ISM frequencies in a residence was observed to be substantial,”

This confirms what we refer to as the antenna effect of smart meters, which results in emissions that far exceed those reported when meters are tested in a laboratory setting, disconnected from wiring.  The Isotrope Report goes on to state that “if the 915 MHz conducted energy were to be held to the same standard as 30 MHz, the level of the 915 MHz conducted energy from the AMR meter would fail.”

The Isotrope report thus substantiates that smart meters cause an extraordinary RF/MW antenna effect on electrical distribution systems when they are used as intended, rather than in the isolation of a testing laboratory.

See  Isotrope Report:

Report on Examination of Selected Sources of Electromagnetic Fields at Selected Residences in Hastings on Hudson 

2.  The smart meter antenna effect results in injury to occupants of homes and business even where the meter is installed up to 150 feet away.

Many people are reporting becoming ill after smart meters, including AMR and ERT models, are installed on, in or near their homes and businesses.  Reported symptoms include heart palpitations and other cardiac problems, ringing in the ears, sleep problems, anxiety, headaches, nausea, recurrence of cancer and more.  These reports are too numerous and too consistent in nature to be dismissed as coincidental.

Where smart meters are installed up to 150 feet away from a home or business, the onset of these symptoms among occupants is attributable to the smart meter antenna effect.

SSMNY found evidence of the antenna effect when we visited the third floor apartment of a multi-family home in upstate New York where the residents, a mother and her daughter, have become very ill since their exposure to the RF/MW conducted then radiated emissions from a smart meter installed on the outside of the ground level of the building.  On one occasion when we tested the RF/MW emissions at the meter itself, they were low.  Nonetheless, our testing in a third floor bedroom confirmed the meter’s antenna effect. In the bedrooms we measured levels of RF/MW emissions that exceeded the highest levels that our instruments would record, far beyond what is considered safe according to the findings in the 2012 BioInitiative Report. In the video, emissions measured zero at the meter, however, minutes later in the apartment the signal was again clearly heard and measured at high levels, disappearing when the circuit to the bedrooms was turned off. No other transmitters were plugged in on the circuit.  The utility company has claimed that the meter is “non-transmitting” and no FCC identification number is visible. However, according to the meter’s specifications “The kV2c meter family offers a large range of possible AMI communication technologies including RF Mesh, Cellular, Power Line Carrier, RS-232, RS-485, and Analog Phone Modem to support all of your Smart Grid applications.”

The video record that we made of this testing and the smart meter antenna effect at this home can be seen here: 

Smart Meter Blamed For Destroying Family’s Health 

This video record demonstrates the importance of the conducted emissions documented in the Isotrope report and reveals how smart meters can cause illness for people sleeping in bedrooms distant from the meter. Final confirmation would require replacing the smart meter with an independently sourced analog meter and re-testing. Lacking that final proof, this video provides compelling evidence that conducted RW/MW emissions from smart meters can be extremely hazardous. A full investigation by the New York State Health Department and Centers for Disease Control is warranted.

*https://www.gedigitalenergy.com/SmartMetering/catalog/kv2c.htm

3.  Smart meters have specific identifiable pulsed clicking signals.

The following video demonstrates the specific and distinct sound and RF/MW measurements of smart meters, using the identical measuring equipment that SSMNY used in the previous video.   This corroborates that the signals that are audible in the prior video are attributable to the smart meter installed on the home that SSMNY visited.

The Sounds of Different RF radiation Sources with a RF  Analyser

To compare:

See minute 1:38 in The Sounds of Different RF radiation Sources with a RF  Analyser

See minute 3:57 in Smart Meter Blamed For Destroying Family’s Health

4.  Conclusion

The Isotrope report’s findings concerning the antenna effect caused by smart meters, and SSMNY’s observations of that effect and the injury it causes, debunk attempts by the industry to claim that these meters are safe.  Those attempts depend on testing meters in the isolation of an FCC laboratory, without connecting them to wiring grids, using protocols which urgently need to be updated.

The utility industry and government regulators have presented no evidence that smart meters are safe.  Moreover, the findings presented above confirm that these meters are unsafe despite the fact that they may appear to be operating within flawed FCC guidelines, in the isolation of the testing laboratory.  They demonstrate that FCC testing needs to be updated from interference testing to health-based testing.  In addition, the FCC should obtain assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in establishing health-based standards and testing protocols.

The utility industry and government regulators made a dangerous mistake when they invested so heavily in smart meter technology before testing their impact on human health and safety.  The industry should not be permitted to inflict the consequences of that mistake on us and our families by deploying this dangerous technology in our homes and businesses, against our will.

The FCC should acknowledge the inadequacy of its testing, remove these meters from the market and require utilities to replace non-analog meters with purely mechanical analog meters.

For additional information, please visit: 

http://www.nysuma.org

www.electricalpollution.com
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Book: “Doubt is Their Product” — how the industry confuses the public and the science

Posted on August 2, 2014 by admin

“Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing controversy.”
Tobacco company Brown and Williamson, “Smoking and health proposal”

Doubt is Their Product, published in 2008, is written by Dr. David Michaels, epidemiologist and former Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety, and Health.

This is a “must read” for anyone dealing with industries and special interests that pollute and harm public health and the environment.

He writes in the Introduction (my emphasis):

I ran the process through which we issued a strong new rule to prevent chronic beryllium disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease prevalent among nuclear weapons workers. The industry’s hired guns acknowledged that the current exposure standard for beryllium is not protective for employees. Nevertheless, they claimed, it should not be lowered by any amount until we know with certainty what the exact final number should be.

Anyone who has worked on industry-related health and safety issues, including Smart Meters and wireless radiation, has heard the words “conclusive”, “proof”, “certainty”, “sound science” as opposed to “junk science”, “cherry-picking” and other similar terms. These are terms used to game the science and confuse the public. Language and framing are very important parts of industry strategy.

Doubt is Their Product exposes the industries, the product defense firms they employ, and the methods. It is critical information to give to others and to take to public hearings on issues including fracking, GMOs, nuclear power, Smart Meters, cell towers, and wireless tech in schools.

Product defense firms include Exponent, Gradient, and the Weinberg Group.

Exponent has helped defend MTBE, asbestos, g-forces used in amusement park rides, the pesticide atrazine, and Smart Meters.

Michaels concludes his book:

Industry has skillfully turned what should be a debate over policy into a debate over science. The retreat from regulation is fueled by the product defense experts who specialize in manufacturing uncertainty and creating not sound science, as they disingenuously claim, but something that sounds like science in order to allow toxic exposures to go unregulated and victims of these chemicals to go uncompensated.

…It is vital that those charged with protecting the public’s health understand that the alleged desire for absolute scientific certainty is both counterproductive and futile. To wait for certainty is to wait forever. The fundamental paradigm of public health is and must be to protect people on the basis of the best evidence currently available.

And that must be done now.

 

Doubt is Their Product:
How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health
by David Michaels
Published Oxford University Press, 2008
ISBN 978-0-19-530067-3  Hardcover

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CPUC uproar continues as emails surface; PUC attorney fired who wanted PG&E records released

Posted on August 1, 2014 by admin

On July 29, PG&E was charged with lying to federal regulators.

On the previous Friday, the CPUC released emails between PG&E executives and PUC officials. On July 28, the city of San Bruno held a press conference in front of the PUC.

Contra Costa Times, 7-28-14:

San Bruno has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to remove Peevey as the head of the agency and has called for the state Legislature, state Attorney General Kamala Harris and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the matter…[California Senator Jerry] Hill, in an interview Monday with this newspaper, said he backed San Bruno’s demand that the regulatory chief be removed. “Peevey has created a culture of complacency at the PUC,” he said. “He needs to step down or be removed.”

The basis for San Bruno’s demands are about 40 emails between PUC officials and PG&E executives about regulatory proceedings that the PUC released to the city on Friday to settle a lawsuit, including one in which a top PUC official gave public relations advice to PG&E and another in which a PG&E executive signed off a note to a PUC official with “Love you. Thanks.”[i]

KCBS, San Francisco, 7-28-14:

State Senator Jerry Hill expressed his outrage.

“When you talk about cozy, the response to one of those emails from the PG&E executive at the end was, “love you” back to the assistant of the president of the PUC. If that’s not cozy, I don’t know what is,” Hill said. “They’re trying to get away with murder, because that’s what to me, the San Bruno experience was. It was not an accident. It was murder.”

 …San Bruno officials said the emails indicate an unprofessional, unethical, inappropriate and illegal relationship between the utility company and its regulators. They’re seeking to dismiss the commission’s President Michael Peevey and have formally asked Governor Jerry Brown to fire him.

In addition, they want a criminal investigation to be conducted on both county and state levels with the potential for fines to be imposed.[ii]

In July, the PUC fired a veteran CPUC attorney who pushed for PG&E records and fines in the San Bruno case. The entire article from the San Francisco Chronicle excerpted below is worth reading for the detail on this situation.

Cagen was fired one day after the commission’s legal staff backed away from his effort to make PG&E account for which lines it tested with high-pressure water before the September 2010 explosion.

 Sources said Cagen was fired after he protested the decision. PG&E attorneys have resisted turning over the information and recently warned that doing so could further delay a resolution of the long-pending regulatory case.

…Critics of the commission said the dismissal of Cagen – who had a 35-year track record of handling regulatory cases with the agency – was the latest evidence that the agency is overly cozy with the utility it regulates. Continue reading →

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California governor’s top staff are PG&E executives

Posted on August 1, 2014 by admin

Why has Governor Jerry Brown refused to fire CPUC Chairman Michael Peevey, formerly President of Southern California Edison?

The San Bruno explosion and ongoing investigations have brought many of the longstanding issues and internal problems at the CPUC into the open. The cozy relationship between Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the CPUC was further documented this week with the release of emails obtained by the city of San Bruno.[i]

However, to date, Governor Jerry Brown has ignored the substantial evidence of Chairman Peevey’s autocratic rule, mismanagement, and conflict of interest. His office said in 2012:

“We have confidence that the PUC will faithfully discharge their duties to zealously guard the public interest and get to the bottom of any injustice raised by the San Bruno pipeline explosion.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21829508/mothers-pg-e-blast-victims-urge-brown-fire
Mothers of San Bruno PG&E blast victims urge Gov. Jerry Brown to fire state’s top utility regulator, 10-22-12

Why?

Because Gov. Jerry Brown himself has a very, very close relationship with PG&E, and that conflict of interest doesn’t bother him at all.

There are four people at the top of Brown’s administration: Jerry Brown, his wife Anne Gust Brown, and former PG&E executives Nancy McFadden and Dana Williamson.

Brown appointed both these execs in 2011. Nancy McFadden was Senior Vice President and Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of PG&E Corp. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President for Public Affairs for PG&E Corp. and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Dana Williamson was Director of Public Affairs for PG&E.

Dana Williamson was hired as his senior adviser for cabinet and external affairs, and to oversee the governor’s external affairs operation and the administration’s Washington, D.C., office. Last summer, she was officially named as his cabinet secretary, “a job that has traditionally been the second-most-powerful staff position in a gubernatorial administration.”

Nancy McFadden is his executive secretary/chief of staff, his gatekeeper. [ii]

It is incredible that any corporation should have such visible power over a government.

On top of that, when Brown was elected in 2011, San Bruno had just happened. The newspapers were full of the tragedy and the growing scandal over PG&E and the PUC. That continues to this day.

Furthermore, California voters had just defeated PG&E’s Proposition 16 in June 2010. PG&E mounted a campaign, via this proposition, to stop the formation of locally-owned municipal utilities which were cutting into its monopoly.

Who ran that campaign at PG&E? Nancy McFadden.

McFadden also previously worked for Gov. Gray Davis.

Gov. Brown’s connection with utility companies runs deep into his policy initiatives. For example, the high speed rail project he’s pushing will benefit PG&E and Southern California Edison enormously because of the huge amount of electricity it would use.

So, don’t expect Jerry Brown to take any real interest or action on the problems at the PUC. The problems with PG&E and other special interests start at the top in California – in the governor’s office.

When are Californians voters going to fire Jerry Brown?

——————————————————————————————————————-

Sources:

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/29/local/la-me-nancy-mcfadden-20140330
Indispensable insider looks out for Gov. Jerry Brown’s interests/As the governor’s gatekeeper and chief liaison to the Legislature, Nancy McFadden is the longest-serving loyalist in Brown’s inner circle.
March 29, 2014

http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/gcprogram.taf?function=bio&EventID=GC10&SPID=4764

Speaker Biography — Miliken Conference: Shaping the Future, April 26-28, 2010

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/11/jerry-brown-names-pge-official-dana-williamson-senior-adviser.html#ixzz1ciLUiXdy
Jerry Brown names PG&E official as his senior adviser, November 3, 2011

Pacific Gas & Cronyism


Pacific Gas & Cronyism, March 14, 2012

Cronyism at Any Speed


Cronyism at Any Speed: California utilities, in search of taxpayer windfall, lobby for high speed rail, March 19, 2012

http://greencorruption.blogspot.com/2012/05/brightsource-energy-political-influence.html
BREAKING: BrightSource Energy Political Influence and Their $1.6 Billion DOE Loan, May 16, 2012

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/06/opinion/la-oe-morrison-gust-brown-governor-california-20120606
Anne Gust Brown: Much more than California’s first lady
As special advisor to her husband, Gov. Jerry Brown, she’s a power in her own right.
June 06, 2012

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/21/local/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-staff-exodus-continues-20130320
Jerry Brown staff exodus continues, March 21, 2013

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/jerry-brown-fills-cabinet-secretary-post-after-all.html
Jerry Brown fills cabinet secretary post, after all, August 15, 2013

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-names-dana-williamson-as-cabinet-secretary-20130814-story.html
Jerry Brown names new senior staff positions, 8-15-13
———————————————————————————

[i] http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_26230237/san-bruno-demands-fines-against-pg-e-

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/07/28/state-senator-says-pge-trying-to-get-away-with-murder-emails-following-deadly-2010-san-bruno-explosion-examined/

[ii] “James M. Humes, who was Brown’s top aide as attorney general, will be one of the most powerful officials in the new administration, along with Nancy McFadden, a former PG&E executive

…Humes, 51, will be Brown’s executive secretary for administration, legal affairs and policy. Humes was Brown’s top deputy in the attorney general’s office and for the last four years has worked closely with Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown.

Gust Brown played a major part in her husband’s gubernatorial campaign and will have an integral role in the new administration. Brown appointed her special counsel.

McFadden, a former advisor to Davis, will be the new governor’s executive secretary for legislation, appointments and policy — Brown’s top liaison with the Legislature. She and Humes are splitting a job traditionally held by a chief of staff.” http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/06/local/la-me-jerry-brown-20110106

“Unlike past governors, Brown has no chief of staff. He initially split the job between two aides — Jim Humes and Nancy McFadden — when he took office in 2011. Humes left the administration for a seat on the state appelate court last year, leaving McFadden as the de facto chief of staff but working without the title.” http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-names-dana-williamson-as-cabinet-secretary-20130814-story.html
Jerry Brown names new senior staff positions

“As the governor’s gatekeeper and chief liaison to the Legislature, Nancy McFadden is the longest-serving loyalist in Brown’s inner circle.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/29/local/la-me-nancy-mcfadden-20140330
Indispensable insider looks out for Gov. Jerry Brown’s interests

 

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Oregon: Portland General Electric replaces 70,000 Smart Meters, says remote disconnect switch is a fire risk

Posted on July 31, 2014 by admin

The Oregonian, July 24, 2014:

Portland General Electric is replacing 70,000 residential “smart” meters that run the risk of catching fire, many of them installed at rental properties in East Multnomah County.

PGE says three small meter fires have been reported in its service territory, with minor property damage in one case. It mailed out letters to affected customers this week and aims to have the affected meters replaced by the end of October.

The electrical component failures are limited to a subset of smart meters that it installed between 2010 and 2012. The affected model number is the Sensus 2F Gen3 RC. Customers can call PGE at 877-835-1435 or check online at pgemeterexchange.com.

The other 785,000 meters that the company installed with residences and businesses between 2009 and 2012 don’t have the same technology, which allows them to be turned on an off remotely. As such, the company says they don’t run the risk of catching fire.

Bill Nicholson, PGE’s Senior Vice President of Customer Service, said PGE first became aware of potential problems in 2013 and hired two separate consultants to evaluate the meters. Its initial testing was inconclusive, but it shared its results with the manufacturer, North Carolina-based Sensus, and asked for help.

“They are not recalling these”, Nicholson said. “This is our choice. This is our decision based on our assessment and our tests. We believe this risk is small, but it’s totally unacceptable to us.”

Reports of smart meter malfunctions, explosions and fires, meanwhile, have cropped up around the country and the world, including some meters manufactured by Sensus.

… PGE says it is working with Sensus on the meter replacements and it’s not clear at this point whether ratepayers, as a group, will be asked to cover the capital or installation costs of the replacements.

Complete article at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/07/pge_replacing_some_electricity.html
PGE replacing 70,000 electricity meters because of fire risk

The three “small” fires don’t include the meters that blew off homes last year.

There have been several reports of problems with electrical equipment at homes, including a Sherwood home where an electrical meter was blown off the side of the house.

Other residents have reported blown meters, the smell of smoke in their homes…

 Comment:
Just got word from the EOC about their people running all over Sherwood feeling houses because of potential surge fires. [i]

PGE’s meter replacement doesn’t include this situation. This comment appeared on the Stop Smart Meters website (www.stopsmartmeters.org)

Smart Meter Explodes in Oregon

“I didn’t know that I had a smart meter until it blew up on 08/12/2010! I am an Oregon PG&E customer, now victim. I want to know if anyone else has seen a smart meter blow up. It threw flames out and black smoke was in the air for hours. I called PG&E, but they said it wasn’t possible for a meter to explode. I wrote letters, called many times, but they said that they were too busy to come look at meter. For five months it sat there black and the house black also from the blast. I had to be taken to the Dr. because the blast knocked me down onto the cement. My doctor has referred me to a specialist. I have never had health problems. Now I have severe pain running through the nerves of the right side of my body. I can only walk with crutches now and only sleep two to four hours per night. The bills continue to go higher each month, and my bill says “estimated usage.” Anon, Oregon

How many other customers have had similar problems?

How many have had problems with strangely high bills, like this PGE customer? [ii] After the Oregonian reported this incident, they quit covering the issue. Why?

And then there are the health problems that untold numbers of PGE customers are suffering.

The Oregon news media has been silent, so how would anyone know that there are widespread problems related to a utility meter?

Customers who wanted to “opt out” were charged the highest rates in the country — $253 for the installation and $51 per month.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission approved PGE’s proposal last year to replace its aging fleet of electrical meters, overriding the objections of ratepayer advocates who felt the technology wasn’t ready for prime time.[iii]

The Oregon PUC has been no public advocate at all.

In February, Oregon legislators heard presentations about the health problems from Smart Meters and wireless radiation.[iv] What action have they taken?

The Citizens Advisory Board has reportedly opposed Smart Meters, but what action has it taken? How is it warning the public?

And in the media, only KATU has done any investigation of Smart Meters.[v]

Five years after they started installing Smart Meters, Portland General Electric is just starting to face the problems with them.

How long before customers get real relief?

———————————————————————————

[i] http://www.katu.com/news/local/Power-surge-in-Sherwood-leaves-thousands-without-electricity-208544831.html
Power surge in Sherwood leaves thousands without electricity (see photo with article)

[ii] http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/01/pge_customer_questions_intelli.html

PGE customer questions intelligence of new smart meters

[iii] http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/01/pge_customer_questions_intelli.html

PGE customer questions intelligence of new smart meters, January 6, 2009

[iv] https://smartmeterharm.org/2014/07/01/martin-pall-voltage-gated-calcium-channels/

[v] http://www.katu.com/news/local/Could-smart-meters-pose-health-risks-Some-say-yes-199882821.html
Could smart meters pose health risks? Some say yes

 

 

Article posted under Fair Use Rules.

Article posted under Fair Use Rules.

 

 

 

 

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Insurance Brokers Association: Ignoring Smart Meter problems increases liability

Posted on July 31, 2014 by admin

Medicine Hat News
City could be liable for smart meter fires
By Gillian Slade
July 29, 2014.

The City of Medicine Hat could be held responsible if a smart meter results in a fire and should therefore be diligent about the associated risks, says the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta.

“The City has to take a hard, hard look at this. They now know that there are problems and if they continue to install them they are increasing their liability,” said Gord Cowan, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta. “If there is a meter installed that does fail, and the house burns down, the city’s insurers are going to have to pay for that. I would venture to say the City’s insurers are taking a pretty hard look at this.”

Saskatchewan halted installation of its Sensus smart meters after eight of the devices malfunctioned causing the meters to melt or catch fire.

Coun. Bill Cocks, who chairs the City’s Energy Committee, is not concerned at this stage about liability based on the information he’s been given to date.

“Not based on what I have been told to date,” said Cocks. “I’m assured by my department, the people that I rely on, that our equipment is state-of-the-art and that we haven’t had these problems. As I understand it they have to be properly installed and we have not had any such issues here. It is something I think we need to be aware of but we have had no problems here at all.”

In Medicine Hat, 29,000 meters have already been installed, and the project is almost complete.

http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2014/07/29/city-could-be-liable-for-smart-meter-fires/

Note: Medicine Hat Electric Utility is installing the same Sensus Smart Meters than SaskPower has been ordered to remove.

Reposted under Fair Use Rules

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BREAKING: SaskPower ordered to remove all 105,000 Smart Meters in province (VIDEO)

Posted on July 31, 2014 by admin

Government Minister Bill Boyd stated that people’s lives and their family’s lives can’t be compromised.

SaskPower ordered to remove all smart meters in the province
30 July 2014 at 7:16pm |
by Shawn Knox, Global News

Fires prompt full recall & investigation of why testing never happened

Video:   http://globalnews.ca/video/1483691/saskpower-removing-smart-meters
The removal of the smart meters over the next six to nine months will cost around $15 million, according to SaskPower.

REGINA – SaskPower has announced that they are removing all the smart meters that were installed in the province.

The minister responsible for SaskPower Bill Boyd said the utility company will be taking out all 105,000 smart meters around Saskatchewan.

“I think the concerns about safety are paramount here, the concerns are significant enough, anytime families are at risk in Saskatchewan, actions have to be taken and that’s why we’ve directed SaskPower accordingly,” said Minister Boyd.

The removal of the smart meters over the next six to nine months will cost around $15 million, according to SaskPower.

“We view it as similar to a recall situation and the people of Saskatchewan shouldn’t be responsible for the costs of this and we’ll do everything we can to recover those costs,” said Boyd.

Boyd will also be reviewing why the new meters weren’t properly studied or tested before they were installed in homes.

“I don’t know whether there was enough testing done. We’ll certainly be conducting, along with SaskPower, an internal review of the procurement procedures around this around the safety concerns people had,” added Boyd.

“We want to determine when these were originally ordered, if there were safety concerns known at that point in time, so we have a lot of questions we’re going to be discussing with SaskPower about how this came to be.”

Earlier this month SaskPower temporarily suspended its installation of smart meters around the province after half a dozen caught fire.

Source: http://globalnews.ca/news/1483134/saskpower-ordered-to-remove-all-smart-meters-in-the-province/

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PG&E charged with lying to regulators in San Bruno explosion

Posted on July 30, 2014 by admin

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Tuesday with lying to regulators in connection with a fatal pipeline explosion that killed eight people and leveled a suburban Northern California neighborhood in 2010.

The U.S. attorney in San Francisco announced the obstruction of justice charge and 27 related counts, which are in a new indictment charging the utility with felonies. It replaces a previous indictment that contained 12 counts related to PG&E’s safety practices, but not obstruction.

Prosecutors say PG&E hampered the investigation by lying to regulators soon after the blast. In particular, PG&E officials are accused of telling National Transportation Safety Board investigators that the safety procedures being followed were correct and approved.

The other charges accuse the utility of failing to act on threats in its pipeline system even after the problems were identified by its own inspectors. The indictment charges PG&E with keeping shoddy records, failing to identify safety threats and failing to act when threats were found.

…No employees or executives have been charged in the San Bruno disaster. Prosecutors could still file another indictment charging individuals.

The utility announced in June that it was expecting the new indictment. PG&E spokesman Greg Snapper said company officials had not yet seen it.

“However, based on all of the evidence we have seen to date, we do not believe that the charges are warranted and that, even where mistakes were made, employees were acting in good faith to provide customers with safe and reliable energy,” he said in a prepared statement.

… On Tuesday, San Bruno City Manager Jim Ruane said “the new criminal charges demonstrate a pattern of deceit by PG&E.”

Complete article:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/news/ci_26240331/pg-amp-e-charged-obstruction-over-san-bruno
PG&E charged with obstruction over San Bruno blast
Santa Cruz Sentinel
July 29, 2014

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