SV council joins SmartMeter petitions
Jul 29, 2010 | 755 views | 3 
| 3 
| 
| 
| 3 | |
On camera: Shown are Scotts Valley activist Joshua Hart (left) and a technician from Wellington Energy Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that, according to its website, was selected by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to “lead a supply chain, work asset management, meter-module installation and deployment portions” of its SmartMeter program. Hart, the leader of a campaign against SmartMeter in Scotts Valley, videotaped the man and told him to stop installing the meter. The man called his office and departed. Peter Burke/Press-Banner
On camera: Shown are Scotts Valley activist Joshua Hart (left) and a technician from Wellington Energy Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that, according to its website, was selected by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to “lead a supply chain, work asset management, meter-module installation and deployment portions” of its SmartMeter program. Hart, the leader of a campaign against SmartMeter in Scotts Valley, videotaped the man and told him to stop installing the meter. The man called his office and departed. Peter Burke/Press-Banner
On July 21, the Scotts Valley City Council voted 4-1 to join two petitions to investigate the digital gas and electricity meters that use wireless technology to transmit readings daily to the company. Randy Johnson was the lone “no” vote.
The city’s decision, however, will not halt the installation of the meters in Scotts Valley. The California Public Utilities Commission, the governing body that oversees PG&E, approved the SmartMeter technology several years ago, and PG&E contends the meters are safe and accurate.
More than 6 million
of PG&E’s 10 million
new meters have already been set up in California, according to PG&E figures, and the first of them arrived in Scotts Valley last week.
The petition started by the city and county of San Francisco seeks to keep the utility from putting in more meters until billing problems are resolved. The state utilities commission has received more than 1,000 billing complaints since 2007.
The second petition is from a San Francisco-based group called the EMF Safety Network. It calls for a thorough study of the potential health effects of the wireless technology used to transmit the data.
Joshua Hart, a Scotts Valley resident who has headed up a group called Scotts Valley Neighbors Against Smart Meters, said he was pleased to see the council sign onto both petitions.
“It was really important, because cities are really starting to speak up about the EMF, not just the billing,” Hart said.
Hart and his group will visit the utilities commission in San Francisco to protest the meters, and, he has been riding his bicycle around Scotts Valley to make note of workers who are installing the meters.
On Monday, July 26,
Hart walked up to a worker from PG&E contractor Wellington Energy Inc. and asked him to stop installing a meter on a Christel Oaks Drive home in Scotts Valley. The man made a phone call and then returned to his truck and drove away.
Hart walked the neighborhood talking to anyone who would listen about the new meters.
Another resident stood in the street watching the proceedings.
“I did appreciate being alerted by a grassroots person, because I approved these things,” said Julie Egdahl, who lives on Christel Oaks Drive.
“I want some more balanced information.”
For billing and health-related questions, customers can call the PG&E SmartMeter hotline at 866-743-0263.
We encourage your online comments in this public forum, but please keep them respectful and constructive. This is not a forum for personal attacks, libelous statements, profanity or racist slurs. Readers may report such inappropriate comments by e-mailing the editor at pbeditor@pressbanner.com.
There are many problems with the stupid meters. Security of information, potential monitoring by crooks and thieves knowing if anyone is home, billing inaccuracies, loss of jobs & less humans walking the streets knowing what gas leaks smell like or dangerous electrical service locations look like, EMF's and cumulative radiation. Get educated. We can have differing opinions, and what makes yours more valid? You sound like one of the people ready to eat a spoonful of DDT.
Prudence and caution suggest we go slowly with change. Oops, sorry, after the fact is a real bummer. Take the onus off of the public, and put the cart back where it belongs. Prove something is safe, before using us as guinea pigs. Nature will prevail, regardless of human machinations. The smart grid can be built without wireless tech. This feels more like corporate dictatorship and is certainly not freedom or liberty of any kind. There is no choice in the matter, and who are you going to trust to protect you, corporate America?
Does anti-smart meter gadfly Josh Hart have pictures of you in compromising positions? Why else do you approvingly feature him harrassing workers? Kind or ironic that somebody who justified his opposition to smart meters in part because of privacy concerns enjoys videotaping and photographing other people who are just doing their jobs.
By the way, isn't he trespassing in the Banner's photograph above?
At some point, dear editors, can you please drop your references to PG&E's "crusade" to deploy smart meters (which is backed by billions from the Obama Administration), use some discretion the next time Josh Hart calls you with a manufactured newspaper event and consider some news items and letters to the editors that deal with something other than smart meters?
Please?
The 99.9% of us who don't wear tin foil in our hats are also interested in other things.