Ca. Smart Meter Opt Out! Yay?

After opening the highest utility bill we've ever had this evening we called PG&E expecting to hassle with a customer service rep again on how to get our analog meter removed, knowing they've already removed them for other customers. Little did we know, earlier today, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal to let people opt out of SmartMeters! All it took was a few buttons pushed on their automated system and we were opted out.....for a $75 fee plus a monthly charge of an additional $10!

www.mercurynews.com...

I'm happy and pissed all at the same time. Glad to not have the potential health hazard attached to our home along with what I believe was a completely inaccurate device allowing these thieves to reach deeper into our pocketbooks. Yet pissed, obviously, about the additional charges...just like these people:

As the opt-out vote passed 4-0, SmartMeter opponents erupted in anger and dismay.
"This is a crime against humanity!" screamed one woman. "Shame! Shame!" chanted another. Peevey had to ask security guards to clear the room.
"We're not going to stop. We're not going away," said Josh Hart, a Santa Cruz County resident and organizer of a grassroots group called Stop Smart Meters. "People are going to refuse to pay these fees. You're going to see personal injury lawsuits and class-action lawsuits."

Having to pay for something you never wanted or asked for to begin with? Flippin' ridiculous. GRRRR. I'm really going to make a concerted effort to cut back on our energy usage simply because I'm so sick of giving criminals our hard earned money.

Dont get me started on smart meters! In Victoria (Au), we had smart meters made mandatory by our last set of overlords, there was no way out it was install them or else. Then the new overlords came in promising to look into them and let us know it was ok to stop the installers in the meantime. Should have known it was all for naught because the day after the electricity man came to my door (and I told him politely to get the hell of my property) the libs said they had decided that we had to have them after-all.

As for an opt out system, they'll just keep piling on more and more fee's until the have big enough profits to send burly lawyers to everyone's doors. Sickening.

If this resolution (if you want to call it that) hadn't come about, we were going to follow what other people had done and acquire an old analog meter and have it installed then make it so you couldn't remove the analog meter. Examples:

Defend you analog meter

I'm pretty shaken up about this whole thing. I live in British Columbia, and we recently caged our meter and faxed out the formal refusals of installation after my partner chased the installers off the property. We were the only ones on the block left unscathed.

We are living with family, moving out soon, to look for an apartment. Renting is an extremely passive position to be forced to take in the wake of the smart meters. I wonder, am I going to have to put out ads to start soliciting for a smart-meter-free living space? I'm not sure what else I can do, besides pray for a sympathetic landlord and that this whole thing gets thrown out of the province?

Any other renters that are EMF-sensitive out there and under the impending threat of a smart meter?

I emailed BC Hydro back when I had my last apartment, asking them to verify what type of meter I was paying for, since they had been recently "serviced," and our suite was adjacent to a bank of 10, 20, 30, god only knows how many meters. ONE MONTH LATER they replied and said, despite the fact that I pay for my meter, since I do not own the apartment building, they refuse to disclose the information of what type of meter I have.

Incredible. It's the equivalent of spraying DDT through the house, 24/7.

Originally posted by kalamatas
All it took was a few buttons pushed on their automated system and we were opted out.....for a $75 fee plus a monthly charge of an additional $10!

$10/mo?

I could easily read 20-30 meters an hour in my neighborhood, where the houses aren't too far apart, so this means $200-$300 an hour for a meter reader? Plus, I don't think they even read the meter every month, it seems like they read it every other month and amke an estimate in the months they don't read it.

So this makes it more like $400-600 per hour for a meter reader, isn't that kind of steep? I'll be glad to do the job for only $300 an hour.

Then I can hire someone to do it for $30 an hour and pocket the other $270 per hour. LOL.

I think you're getting hosed with that $10 a month surcharge.

I got one of them notices in my bill too. After thinking about how they can charge you whatever they want or turn on and off your power at will just to punish you if they really wanted to I decided the real reason they call them smart meters is because they can be used to inflict pain... as in OUCH THAT SMARTS!

I got a new opt out policy. It's called solar. Then there's the gradual opt out policy where you start out by spending 75 dollars on your initial set up and then you add $10 towards more panels per month. Sound familiar?

Okay, so these are probably stupid questions but, here goes.

Who is paying for the electricity that a smart meter uses?

How much electricity does it take to power a smart meter?

Is there any way a consumer can regulate/see the power usage of just the smart meter?

I ask these questions because I'm in Ohio and we don't have smart meters where I am, yet. No, sir I don't want one.

I've looked on the net and have educated myself on all the other aspects of a smart meter. I have yet to find these facts.

Seems like a great argument that wouldn't put you on the "fringe list". Funny how you can be put on that list because you don't want your privacy "infringed" upon or your health "infringed" upon. But lets face it, people seem to get behind standing up for yourself when it is your wallet being "infringed" upon. Sometimes.