Are PG&E Smart Meters Smart? Please sign petition!

[mweaver]

The EMF Safety Network PGE Smart Meter petition is now online: SIGN HERE! https://www.PetitionOnline.com/EMFsafe1/ Please forward widely to your friends, family and colleagues. Residents, employees and visitors of Sonoma County can sign the petition. Then scroll down to read and sign another Smart Meter petition started by a CA group called TURN which is demanding more accountability from PG&E and a moratorium on smart meters re skyrocketing bills after installation of meters.

Click here to learn more about Smart Meters and to read some excellent commentaries written by EMF experts. EMF Safety Network Are PGE Smart Meters Smart? THANK YOU!

Petition wording and Background:

Sonoma County is slated by PGE to have a new wireless grid installed in May 2010. Lampposts, buildings, and telephone poles will host the wireless repeater infrastructure to serve the new wireless PGE Smart Meters, which will be installed in every home and business. These devices will add yet another layer of radio frequencies (RF) to our homes and environment and will emit RF signals throughout the day and night. In light of the lack of FCC safety standards for chronic long term exposure to RF and in light of the of the call for the precautionary principle for wireless technology from global scientists, environmental agencies, advocacy groups and doctors, we, the undersigned request you:

1. Thoroughly investigate the PGE Smart Meter proposal and potential health risks of these devices by holding public hearings.
2. Require PGE to submit a characterization study of the smart meter system planned for Sonoma County.
3. Obtain the Smart Meter health and safety study PGE commissioned and make available to the public.
4. Allow customers to "opt out" of program.
5. Place a 6-9 month moratorium on all new wireless installations to allow time for a thorough scientific review.

Please send this information to others and ask for their support in requesting public hearings. Having a petition with signatures is an important way to show the amount of concern there is in the community.

There's also another group who's started a petition against these meters. TURN in SF, Stop Outrageous Smart Meter Bills

TURN Consumer Advocates:Index Here's what the TURN petition states: Stop Outrageous Smart Meter Bills!
PG&E customers in Bakersfield just finished their first summer with smart meters, a technological advance that was supposed to save customers money by helping them lower their energy bills. Instead, Bakersfield bills skyrocketed, and PG&E's response was 'don't use so much power.'
TURN received over 100 complaints about smart meters. PG&E customers told us their demands, and we're taking them to the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) and state legislature. Sign TURN's petition demanding more accountability from PG&E and a moratorium on smart meters. Click here to learn more about Smart Meters. THANK YOU!

Melissa Weaver, EMF Safety Network

[Barry]

The EMF Safety Network PGE Smart Meter petition is now online: SIGN HERE! EMF Safety Network PGE Smart Meter Review Petition ...

Petition wording and Background:

Sonoma County is slated by PGE to have a new wireless grid installed in May 2010. Lampposts, buildings, and telephone poles will host the wireless repeater infrastructure to serve the new wireless PGE Smart Meters, which will be installed in every home and business. These devices will add yet another layer of radio frequencies (RF) to our homes and environment and will emit RF signals throughout the day and night. In light of the lack of FCC safety standards for chronic long term exposure to RF and in light of the of the call for the precautionary principle for wireless technology from global scientists, environmental agencies, advocacy groups and doctors, we, the undersigned request you:

1. Thoroughly investigate the PGE Smart Meter proposal and potential health risks of these devices by holding public hearings.
2. Require PGE to submit a characterization study of the smart meter system planned for Sonoma County.
3. Obtain the Smart Meter health and safety study PGE commissioned and make available to the public.
4. Allow customers to "opt out" of program.
5. Place a 6-9 month moratorium on all new wireless installations to allow time for a thorough scientific review.

...

While I am relatively agnostic on the whole EMF/RF/Wifi issue, I do think it is important that people are informed about what's happening and the different schools of thought regarding its safety.

I also support the customer opt-out option as a reasonable way to honor an individual's concern without derailing the whole roll out, which would seem to offer substantial efficiency, traffic and pollution reduction benefits.

[Chris Murray]

I find it disappointing that PGE has to use wireless. They run a metallic conductor into each meter. Surely it must be possible to encode the data in a noise immune form and relay it back, at least to the nearest transformer, over the supply lines.

[Zeno Swijtink]

I find it disappointing that PGE has to use wireless. They run a metallic conductor into each meter. Surely it must be possible to encode the data in a noise immune form and relay it back, at least to the nearest transformer, over the supply lines.

My impression is that in the future PG&E hopes to embed your electric appliances into the communication network so that they can help you reduce your power needs during peak hours. For this the smart meter needs to communicate with your appliances.

I guess the simplest way to do this is wirelessly, rather then over the same wire that carries the power?? Similar to Google PowerMeter.

[stuartdole]

Thanks Barry, Chris, Zeno...

As I understand it, the meters' communication channel will be low power, like cell phones, pagers, or Kindles - and it's outside your house - very low EMF. And I like the idea of giving people financial incentive to "level the load" and enable the utility to not have to build as many new power plants. This can have a major impact on public health, as well as the climate.

I was talking to a PG&E engineer, and she was saying the analog (mechanical) meters we have now tend to run slow - or stop - as they age. Some are over 40 years old. So when the new (digital) meters are installed people get higher bills and freak out and file lawsuits.

What really bothers me about the new meters is their software - it was written by programmers who weren't thinking about viruses and malware. There has been some chatter in the technical press about worms and viruses being written that infect the smart meters and propagate themselves from meter to meter, and then can shut off your power when they get the secret signal from a server somewhere in China or Eastern Europe... Could cause a lot of social disruption during a crisis?

Just my two cents.

Happy trails

[Barry]

...
What really bothers me about the new meters is their software - it was written by programmers who weren't thinking about viruses and malware. There has been some chatter in the technical press about worms and viruses being written that infect the smart meters and propagate themselves from meter to meter, and then can shut off your power when they get the secret signal from a server somewhere in China or Eastern Europe... Could cause a lot of social disruption during a crisis?

Oy!