Smart Meter questions answered tonight

Smart Meter questions answered
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., today, Monday Sept. 13
WHERE: Scotts Valley Senior Center, 370 King’s Village Road, in Scotts Valley
DETAILS: A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. representative will be on hand to answer questions about its Smart Meter program.
INFO: 866-743-0263
Council could stop installation of smart meters
The Scotts Valley City Council will decide Wednesday if it will join a moratorium to halt the installation of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s smart meters for one year until investigations of the program are complete.
The decision will take place at its Sept. 15 meeting.
The controversial smart meters, which use wireless technology to transmit readings daily to PG&E, are a point of contention due to reports of inaccurate billing issues and health risks across the state.
Most recently concerns have been raised around the program’s interference with common household devices like baby monitors, satellite televisions, and wireless phones.
Investigations of the program include one by the California Council on Science and Technology, which will determine if the Federal Communications Commission standards for smart meters sufficiently protect against radio frequencies are electromagnetic fields. The council’s report should be released next month on Oct. 14.
Assembly member Jared Huffman who represents the 6th Assembly District which includes Novato and Petaluma, also called for an independent agency to study the health effects of smart meters.
PG&E began installing the meters in 2006. Smart meters are supposed to replace analog technology that dates back to Thomas Edison’s experiments in the late 1800s.
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 in June.
The state utilities commission has received more than 1,000 billing complaints since 2007.