Re: Smart meters

Dear Councilman McKeown,
The Federal Communications Act of 1996 is 15 years old.  Smart
 Meters did not exist at that time, nor the plan to install one on every home.  No one has a cell phone that old, or a computer.  The legislation is simply not keeping up with the technology, or the science that says that
 pulsed radiation is harmful to humans.  
There have been repeated calls for the FCC to update that act, but thus far they have been ignored.  The FCC licenses the spectrum to various spectrum-requiring
 companies to the tune of billions of dollars each year.  I understand that the government does not want to lose any part of those revenues... however, sick people are significantly less effective at generating incomes...
 and tend to rack up enormous health care costs.  Likewise, dead people do not pay taxes. At some point the revenues gained will not be equal to the revenues lost.
It is time for a massive re-examination of the government's plan to dose us with unlimited, un-monitored microwave radiation. While I absolutely agree that we have to solve this as a nation, in the meantime, is there nothing we can do within our own communities to avoid collateral damage of bad policies?
I understand that Edison wishes to reduce its workforce, and can achieve this by no longer requiring meter readers to come to our homes.  (The support of this by anyone in government at a time of high state and national unemployment, baffles me.)  However, in these modern times there are other solutions -- like crowd sourcing.  I can easily, and happily photograph our building's meters and email them into Edison each month.
  I have offered to do this, but have been thus far told that it is not an option.  We should be allowed to read our own meters as an alternative to having pulsed microwave radiation forced upon us.
I asked what would happen if we disallowed access to meters by means of a cage or a fence, and was told that Edison would immediately shut off everyone's electricity.  Really?  No refrigeration?  No lights?  One of our residents is a 98-year-old woman.  It would be impossible for her or any of us to survive easily without electricity.  Is that really our only option?
Other cities in California have opt-out plans http://stopsmartmeters.org/how-you-can-stop-smart-meters/sample-letter-to-local-government/ca-local-governments-on-board/  Why shouldn't Santa Monica have
 one
 also?
Best,
Caroline Dixon
P.S. I have blind-copied several other concerned residents.  They may also wish to contact you.








--- On Wed, 8/10/11, Kevin McKeown <;[hidden email]> wrote:

From: Kevin McKeown <[hidden email]>
Subject: Smart meters
To: "Kevin McKeown" <[hidden email]>
Date: Wednesday, August 10, 2011,
 10:57 AM

Concern over smart meters has been brought to my attention since I
returned from vacation this past weekend.  While I was out of the country,
a smart meter was installed for my apartment.

So as to be able to respond better to the concerns you've emailed me (I'm
sending this to a number of residents, but blind-copying your email
addresses to protect your privacy), I spoke today at some length with Mark
Olson of Southern California Edison.

SCE has no opt-out program.  There is a hearing in September with Pacific
Gas and Electric in Northern California where the State of California may
devise such a program, but it does not yet exist.  SCE is over halfway
done with installations in Southern California, and has for the time being
simply deferred installations on homes where the property owner refused
them access. 

The meters themselves
 replace old
 mechanical meters that had to be read
periodically in person by an SCE employee.  According to Mark Olsen at
SCE, each home's new smart meter contains a low-power transmitter, with a
very limited range, which is not on all the time -- it sends out a burst
of data perhaps once an hour (and perhaps more often for commercial
customers).

The individual meters are not powerful enough to be received at any
significant distance.  For every 500 to 1000 homes, there is a single
"collector meter" that compiles the information from the individual meters
nearby.  That "collector meter" then initiates a cell phone call to SCE
Central, using the existing cell phone network, to transfer the
accumulated data.

I realize some of this explanation from SCE is contrary to what some of
you report having observed.  I can only share what I was told by SCE.

In the end, the concern you all seem to share is
 about radiation.  Because
the federal Communications Act of 1996 took all jurisdiction over the
airwaves away from local municipalities, there is little the City of Santa
Monica can do directly in this area.  This is why some of you have been
told, correctly, that our City has no one in City Hall in charge of
monitoring.  We have no jurisdiction over radiation, period.  With cell
towers, we have been allowed by the federal government to have very
limited say over aesthetics, and can require telecommunication companies
to document the need for improved/increased service, but we cannot say no,
nor can we regulate or control output powers.  That is entirely in the
realm of state and federal regulation.

Mark Olsen's job at SCE is public outreach and governmental relations, and
he has agreed to provide you further information if you wish.  Mark's
email is [hidden email].

Thanks,

Kevin


     ___________________________________________________
     Kevin McKeown            |  Santa Monica, CA  (USA)
     email: [hidden email] |  310 393-3639 /-3609 FAX
     http://www.mckeown.net   | "Choose to be conscious"
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> I understand that Edison wishes to reduce its workforce, and can achieve
> this by no longer requiring meter readers to come to our homes.  

If the only reason for the new meter was to reduce the number of human
meter-readers, they could have solved that with a meter that transmits
once per month.  Nobody would be complaining about that...

Also, if they can transmit broadband internet over the power lines,
then they could have transmitted your electricity usage (again,
once per month) over the powerline, with no wireless involved...

Marc

Is everyone aware of this declassified Army document concerning the biological effects of RF?  I just found it and it is shocking!
http://refusesmartmeter.com/Bioeffects_of_Selected_Non-Lethal_Weapons.pdf