Today the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted 4-0 to allow PG&E to charge customers $75 initial fee and $10 a month for restoring or retaining their analog meter- or $10 initial fee and $5 a month for CARE customers. Commissioner Florio was notably absent for the vote.
Everyone has paid for Smart Meters through rate hikes on our utility bills. So, if you still have the analog, not only do you not get a refund for the Smart Meter you will not use, but you have to pay to keep the analog meter you already have. Michael Peevey, who wrote the proposal justified the fees, calling it a “service”.
What about the people who asked, or had signs posted stating to not have a Smart Meter, but were forced to have them? What about banks of meters, neighbors meters, the saturation of our communities with pulsed radiation, no investigation on public health and environmental impacts, no investigation on smart meter fires or meters exploding…not even a cost evaluation of the fees?!? The fees are arbitrary, punitive, unfair and amount to extortion. The fees also discriminate against people for medical reasons and are therefore illegal.
For the millions of people who have been forced to have Smart Meters in California now you can legally have Smart Meters removed, and analogs restored. For those people who have seen outrageous billing increases, are offended by privacy infringement, or are so sickened from the radiation pulses, they are eager to have the analog meters back. The initial fees will be less to have PG&E restore the meters, than for you to buy an analog and hire an electrician. If you can afford it, take advantage of this opportunity, but be very careful if they require you to sign any paperwork. PG&E may try to use this opportunity to indemnify themselves of harm. To continue to pay $10 or $5 a month for a meter reader is another matter. You can deduct that portion of your bill in protest. The San Jose Mercury News reported you can call PG&E’s Smart Meter hotline (1-866-743-0263) to schedule Smart Meter removal.
For those on the delay list, or who still have analog meters, you will be receiving notice from PG&E to pay the fees, or else get a Smart Meter. Continue to refuse the Smart Meters and the fees and demand fairness. The opt out proceeding will be continued to evaluate cost and community wide opt-out.
Ask them what the FCC ID# is for the meter. If it has one its transmitting.
Now I got information that this TWACS METER is being installed on every household
I called to opt out and was told by a man at GCEC that the ywacs meter is not the same as the smart meter but I am inclined to think the man is lieing to me because it is a digitel meter so how could it possibly be any different than the smart meter ????
Sent from Runningbare:
So, pressured by mounting ratepayer revolt, PG$E in collusion with the CPUC finally concedes to an ostensibly corrective action for their increasingly unpopular Smart Grid Program–simultaneously capitalizing on yet another superb opportunity to aggrandize the old bottom line. They arbitrarily reversed their own policy by “allowing” ratepayers to “opt out” of a program they were never given a choice to opt into.
The single most overwhelming complaint has been the acute health detriments experienced by a significantly large number of people newly exposed to ubiquitous key components of the program, Smart Meters. Until the decision to “offer” opt out, PG$E’s position was essentially one of denial, i.e. that these new high tech meters with wireless capability are perfectly safe only because they comply with limited FCC standards for RF radiation–standards that deal only with thermal effects. Now we know that even the compliance with these inadequate standards turned out to be a lie.
http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=1724
Furthermore, FCC safety stipulations for installation of the meters were violated wholesale. http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/09/19/smart-meters-violate-fcc-regulations-period/
When this fact was brought to the attention of the FCC, they refused to enforce the conditions made explicit in their own Grant of Equipment Authorization for Smart meter rollout. PG$E’s response to the high number of complaints about adverse health effects was in essence to implore people to quit their whining and find a different cause for their ailments. From a legal standpoint, this blunt “go-away” policy sufficed handsomely. Their attitude was: Your problem is not our problem, but your money will soon be ours.
Until now, the only reported instances when PG$E actually replaced smart meters with analog ones was because of complaints that crucial household electrical equipment had either performed erratically or failed altogether. Now with opt-out, PG$E is suddenly concerned about possible medical sensitivity. On their written Smart Meter Opt-Out Form, there is a box for us to “check here if you operate life support or other sensitive medical equipment in your home.” The operative word here is “sensitive”. To be sure, our very bodies qualify as “medical equipment” that automatically “operate life support” 24-7. Inconveniently, our bodies are also biologically “sensitive”–often symptomatically so–to EMF high-intensity pulsed radiation.
Why do they want to know about our medical status? Why do they care? Their question ostensibly limits concern to “sensitive medical equipment” such as pacemakers and dialysis machines, while conspicuously ignoring physical sensitivity to EMF. Might their concern have anything to do with CPUC code section 453(b)?
“No public utility shall prejudice, disadvantage, or require different rates or deposit amounts from a person because of ancestry, medical condition, marital status or change in marital status, occupation, or any characteristic listed or defined in Section 11135 of the Government Code. A person who has exhausted all administrative remedies with the commission may institute a suit for injunctive relief and reasonable attorney’s fees in cases of an alleged violation of this subdivision. If successful in litigation, the prevailing party shall be awarded attorney’s fees.”
How will PG$E deal with this pesky little CPUC clause? For the majority of us who have not yet developed noticeable pathological “medical conditions”, they are off the hook. But for those of us physically unable to endure prolonged proximity to these demonic devices, their specious, convoluted, patronizing, posturing newspeak legalese might run like this:
If you fail to reveal to us that you are medically sensitive, then we have no way of knowing your condition, and therefore certainly cannot be held responsible for discriminating against you under CPUC code section 453 (b).
If on the other hand you declare to us that you are medically/EMF sensitive, then we both know that you are aware of your condition. (By the way, you’ll need physician-certified proof of your condition.) To “remedy” your problem, we “offer” you a “choice” to have a different meter that would hopefully, but not assuredly, cause you less adverse reaction. And because you take the bait by making that “choice” fully cognizant of your medical sensitivity, we cannot be held liable for discrimination against you. After all, we never compelled you to have a Smart meter, at least not lately.
(Incidentally, beware that this “choice” is undeniably the more expensive one, for reasons we conjure up to justify the higher cost. And by the way, if you have both gas AND electric “service”, the real cost will actually amount to twice as much as what we already said it would be.) In any case, rest assured that the “choice” is “yours”, which we wholeheartedly and “fully support”. Paper or plastic?
As you can see, whether you do or don’t declare medical sensitivity, we shall not be held liable for discrimination. We have (arguably) indemnified ourselves. So don’t bother suing us. We asked about your medical sensitivity only out of due diligence in compliance with CPUC code section 453 (b).
Now, regarding those meter access issues and your Pit Bulls:
Additional surcharges will apply for canine power surges.
However, power surges induced by energy-sucking Smart meters like the ones pictured at the links below, come at no extra cost!
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=1280
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/160-SantaRosa-SM-fire-3.jpg
Incidentally, to help save money and the planet, we’re recycling some of our old meter readers by offering a Special Fire & Close-out Sale on Smart-tasting Dog Food. It’s part of our new Customer Mollification/Energy Mastication Program.
on Feb. 14 2012 I mailed the following to the PUC and PG&E:
NOTIFICATION OF RESISTANCE
TO: PG&E AND THE CPUC
FEBRUARY 14, 2012
I,__________AT _________CA: pay the OPT-OUT fine(s) of $75/$10 per mo.
I KNOW I AM BEING FINED/PUNISHED FOR OPTING OUT OF YOUR
SMART METER PROGRAM
I PAY THESE FINES IN PROTEST!
PGE installed their new analog meter at my house on Friday, February 3rd. It is brand new meter Landis + Gyr Type MX single stator electricity meter manufactured in Mexico. The also handed me a very nice plastic coated card that stated among other things “you will see a line-item on your energy statement for the Opt-Out set-up charge, followed by an ongoing monthly charge.” These type of cards take more than one day to draft, print and disseminate to field personnel for distribution.
The fix was definitely in on the PUC vote on Wednesday. We need to petition for a change in who is eligible to work in the PUC or be a PUC commissioner.
Once again PG&E is creating confusion. While they tell you to wait, they remove meters for others. Why the discrimination PG&E??
When I heard about this the other day,I called PGE,Iam to pay $10.00to have s.meter taken off house,Id not wanted!!!then they will charge me $5.00 monthly fee,for this.
Ive suffered ringing in my ears,since meter put on this old home,plus,ive worried about house fire.
they could not tell me how long before ,they will come to take meter off.,as was told they have to see how many people will want this???????
I told them why wait,put me on the list!!
GET USED TO IT.
PG&E has already killed people in Hinkley, California and San Bruno California and other places that are less well known.
Why are you people complaining about smart meters? Do you think that you deserve better than those who have already been killed by PG&E?
Do you people think that your children deserve to live when the lives of other children have already been destroyed by PG&E?
I just don’t understand you people complaining about smart meters. PG&E has a record of killing and sickening people throughout the state and that’s not going to change. Why don’t you people just do nothing and accept it, like the rest of us?
One thing you can do immediately is to file a complaint at the Consumer Affairs branch of the CPUC: https://ia.cpuc.ca.gov/cimsapp/?key=39949189
am on the phone with pg&e. just so people know, not only are they gouging those of us who need to remove the smart meter for health reasons, but they want to charge for EACH ACCOUNT NUMBER. i have a duplex and although i pay for gas and electric there are three separate account numbers so they are trying to charge me 75 dollars for each account and 10 fee per month for each. There is no official way to complain about this so beware and please can we make sure this is addressed further i am not sure how to resolve this.
I just rec’d a robo call from PG&E telling me I could now opt-out and advising me to either call or go into an office to do so. (Not wasting any time to collect more money — what a surprize. Greedy bastards enabled by their handmaiden CPUC commissioners. Golly, why do I think this entire program was planned BEFORE the vote today…)
The telephone msg also said a letter would follow with info about the program.
I am advising any one who pays this opt-out ‘fee’ to write “PAID UNDER PROTEST” on any relevant papers and on your checks. This may help retain our rights as time goes on.
People needing immediate relief should get it; by all means get rid of SM any way you can ASAP!
But, we need to remain vigilant and take all possible steps in order not to give the appearance of agreeing with, or approving of the process. I will be writing “This is an illegal program, an illegal fee, and I am Paying Under Protest.”
The only solution, as I see it, is to get an intiative on the next ballot to change the requirements for becoming a CPUC commissioner or President. The initiative should change the CPUC code of the California Constitution to state that only 1 commissioner can be from or have lobbied or contracted for any industry that the CPUC regulates. Also, the other commissioners should not have worked for, lobbied for or contracted for any industry that the CPUC regulated within the last 20 years and they cannot work for, lobby for, or contract for any of the aforementioned CPUC regulated industries while in office or within 10 years after leaving office. Combine this with some type of term limit on the CPUC commissioner and president and we may be able to restore the CPUC to looking out for the public (utility consumer) best interest as it used to do decades ago.
Ridiculous! This is extortion! The CPUC and PG&E executives should be jailed!
People need to be very careful of signing any paperwork where PG&E may try to indemnify themselves.
Would those who pay the Analog Meter Tax of $75 plus $10 per month will be eligible to participate in a class action lawsuit?