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    daynurse
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    IJ article about Inverness resisting Smart Meter - Wireless Meter

    Opponents battle with SmartMeter installers in West Marin

    By Richard Halstead
    Marin Independent Journal
    Posted: 12/28/2010 06:31:41 PM PST


    In an escalation of protests against Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s SmartMeters, opponents Monday and Tuesday jousted with employees of a company PG&E hired to install the meters in Inverness.

    "Yesterday we got a report there were four Wellington Energy trucks going towards Inverness," Katharina Sandizell, of Point Reyes Station, said Tuesday. "We have a phone tree, so we got together and basically stopped them."

    Sandizell, who has children ages 3 and 6, is co-director of West Marin Citizens Against Wireless Smart Meters.

    Sandizell said Wellington Energy, hired by PG&E to install the meters, returned to Inverness on Tuesday with eight trucks, twice as many as on Monday.

    "It's like a war," she said. "Today was shock-and-awe as far as I'm concerned."

    Opponents of the meters blocked the path to some houses as Wellington employees approached. In other cases, they videotaped and photographed the Wellington employees. Police were called by Wellington twice. No arrests were made, however.

    Paul Moreno, a PG&E spokesman, said, "We remain committed to reaching out to our customers to provide them with information about the SmartMeter program. We've been doing that in a variety of ways for many months in Marin, and we continue to invite our customers who have any concerns whatsoever to give us a call."

    Moreno said PG&E has postponed installation of SmartMeters in some instances when customers call. But he said

    there was no certainty future requests would be granted."Eventually all the meters will be upgraded," Moreno said. "In the meantime, we are continuing to review options for a non-wireless smart meter."

    Dan Morse, who lives on Forres Way in Inverness, said a Wellington employee installed a SmartMeter on his second-unit cottage Tuesday before knocking on the door of his home. Morse said he asked the employee to remove the SmartMeter he had installed.
    "He said no," Morse said.

    Morse said the employee left without installing a SmartMeter on the main house after he told the employee he didn't want it.
    "He told me, 'If I don't do it, PG&E will,'" Morse said.

    Morse said what bothers him the most about installation of the meters is his lack of choice. He also wants more information about their safety.

    Sandizell said the "time-averaged" radiation levels emitted by the devices have been deemed safe by the Federal Communications Commission. She worries, however, because the meters emit energy in pulses, which she says are much higher than the radiation emitted by a cell phone.

    Scott McMorrow, an Inverness resident who spent time Tuesday filming Wellington employees as they installed meters, said he is eager to see the results of a California Council on Science and Technology review of the issue, which is due out soon. Until then, McMorrow said he is urging his neighbors, even those who have no objections to the meters, to reject their installation.

    Sandizell and nearly 100 of her members attended a Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 14 and asked supervisors to enact a county ban on SmartMeter installation. Supervisors promised to take the matter up when they meet on Jan. 4, she said. After that December meeting, Sandizell's group and other SmartMeter opponents blocked the entrance to a PG&E office in downtown San Rafael. The company closed the office for several hours.

    Sandizell said she doubts PG&E wanted to arrest the protesters because of the bad publicity it would generate.

    "It's not like a bunch of hippy activists," she said. "It's just normal people not feeling comfortable with the technology that's being imposed on them by an uncaring corporation."
    Last edited by Barry; 12-29-2010 at 05:57 PM.
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    Re: IJ article about Inverness resisting Smart Meter - Wireless Meter

    If anyone wants to organize a similar sit in at the San Rafael PG$E office, to protest forced Smart Meter Installation in Marin County, please set up a date and time, contact the Marin IJ and Pacific Sun, and The Patch https://sananselmofairfax.patch.com and I'll help get the word out.

    Also, I encourage all of you to set up phone trees in your area, so that you are set up to head off installers if they should come into your neighborhood. Please tell the head of each phone tree to contact me so I can provide them with installation updates.

    In Layna Berman's interview with Fairfax Mayor Larry Bragman and Smart Meter activist Josh Hart, Josh said Carmel and Capitola, CA have had locks cut on barriers people put up, despite those towns having agreements with PG&E to respect the barriers. Josh also said when it comes down to it, the only thing that works is putting your body/vehicles between the installers and the meters; direct action and civil disobedience. It's in minutes 5-7 of this audio Is This Even Legal?

    If anyone would like to be on a volunteer list to head off installers if they should arrive, please email me your daytime phone number, email address, and street/town off list.

    There are 3 possible trucks to look out for. PG&E, Wellington, and Good Cents. Here are photos of a Good Cents and a Wellington vehicle, the latter being blocked by a dedicated citizen in Humboldt County.

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    Name:  Wellington-blocked-2_2.jpg
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    Latest word today from Fairfax Town Hall (Tuesday August 23rd) is that there have been no reports of installations this Mon or Tue and that there is a regular PG$E truck that maintains this area that carries both analog and smart meters, but this truck is not installing them. If anyone sees installations happening, please contact Judy at Town Hall 453-1584 and she will post updates at https://town-of-fairfax.org/
    on the left side of the page. Please also email me, as I don't know how much she will post.

    Stay tuned.
    Liz


    Last edited by ubaru; 09-02-2011 at 11:13 PM.
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