Criminal Investigation of Smart Meter Opt-Out Fees Requested in Maine!

The Maine Coalition to Stop Smart Meters filed a complaint this week requesting Maine’s Attorney General, William Schneider, open a criminal investigation into smart meter opt out fees.

The complaint alleges in order to avoid health and privacy harms from the detailed information gathering and radiation emitting meters, citizens are forced to pay extortionate fees. They request the Attorney General target Central Maine Power and the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in the extortion investigation.

Ed Friedman stated, “If I must pay to avoid actual harm or even the threat of harm, to myself, my family or my property that is extortion. The federal Hobbs Act defines it as: “…the crime of obtaining property from another induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence or fear, or under color of official right.”

Maine has a similar definition for theft by extortion. With smart meters, the harm and threat of harm come from:

• The emission of RF radiation known to create adverse biological effects;
• The invasion of privacy facilitating warrant-less search and seizure of individual data by an agent of the government (utility acting under specific orders of the PUC);
• The compromising of personal cybersecurity, and;
• A taking of real property without due process of law or just compensation.

“In order to avoid these and other harms, we are forced to pay a coercive fee which if not paid leads to disconnection of electrical service by the monopolistic utility as well as adversely impacting credit ratings.”

The photos are from the Maine Coalition Day of Action protest this week.