BEWARE: The Smart Meter

The Smart Meter is a propaganda device to benefit utility companies, the electronic industry, and the global government

The Smart Meter is a propaganda device to benefit utility companies, the electronic industry, and the global government. Sold as an electricity-, money-, and earth-saving device, smart meters cost hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies and utility companies money, costs that are passed on to hapless consumers in the form of higher energy prices. Utilities are monopolies and as such, the interests of consumers are not a priority. The cost of the new Smart Grid will be passed on to consumers as well.

Rob States, engineer and expert, explained that changing power use from peak to off-peak would only save $40 per year, yet a Smart Meter installation cost $500. Adopting “differentiated pricing” schemes would only save customers money after 12 years when the Smart Meter is paid off.
The Public Utilities in Nevada told a newspaper that “Smart Meters would only slow the rate of increase of energy prices paid by consumers.”

Because Smart Meters operate like a cell phone, they can connect to any type of wireless devices with a built-in Wi-Fi capacity such as washing machines, computers, ovens, TVs, stereos, gym equipment, medical devices, or any other appliance. Such an interactive system is called HAN (Home-Area Network). It is conceivable that in the next five years all new appliances could have RF capability.

HAN technology invasion of privacy, spying, snooping

A HAN can be connected to a home energy management system that can program anything to turn on or turn off based on total energy consumption and pricing schemes. GE, at the forefront of this helpful technology/invasion of privacy/spying/snooping developed Nucleus for its Brillion line of appliances that can be connected to a HAN.

Utilities can sell your home’s data to a third party and any potential hackers can capture the same with a hand-held device in the race for profits or other nefarious uses. The “complex skilled labor” needed to secure the Smart Grid from hackers and staying ahead will cost additional tens of billions of dollars, passed on to consumers in higher electric bills.

Adding insult to injury, FCC, a non-medical organization set limits of acceptable RF exposure back in 1992 and has not modified them since then in spite of the medical research developed in the last ten years alone.

The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) was approved by Congress on December 18, 2007 and signed into law the next day. Title XIII in EISA gave full power to the Department of Energy to legislate, advise, administer, and support the modernization of our country’s electrical grid. By 2010, $16 billion had been spent worldwide to install smart meters. In the next twenty years, it is estimated that $2 trillion will be spent worldwide on smart grid technology. Our government has subsidized utilities so far with at least $10 billion to interface power plants, substations, transformers, transmission lines, and home wiring. The Obama administration provided $1 billion in matching funds in the 2009 stimulus bill. More than twenty million smart meters have been installed in the U.S. so far. http://www.w4ar.com/SmartMetersReport.pdf

Utilities are more than eager to install smart meters because they become the recipients of Smart Grid grants and generous tax breaks. Additionally, the digital meters will no longer require meter readers, saving labor and transportation costs.

Three entities have jurisdiction over the Smart Grid - the Department of Energy, the Federal Communications Commission, and state public utility commissions.  None of these three groups was tasked with privacy, security, and hacking issues.

NOTE
An extensive reading list, compiled by the Smart Meters Report, can be found at the following website on page 45. 
w4ar.com