Logos from some of the 216 cities opposed to SB 649
Opposing telecom totalitarianism in Sacramento
It was beautiful day in Sacramento last Wednesday, July 12 for the hearing on SB 649. But the people I joined in the Capital – people throughout California opposed to this bill, including 216 (of 400) cities and 34 of 58 counties, and at least 34 environmental or health organizations ended up dismayed and outraged.
The California Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee passed the highly contentious bill that day. This was also after SB 649 amazingly passed the Assembly Local Government Committee June 28, despite the huge and growing opposition from the Leagues of California cities and counties, not to mention those of us who know about the severe health and environmental effects. See the Leagues press release: Local Leaders Express Disappointment as Assembly Committee Sides with Corporate Interests over Citizen Control: City, County Officials vow to continue fight against SB 649
The Bill will enable forced placement of powerful microwave radiation antennas called ‘small cells’ on utility poles, street lamps, traffic lights and street signs throughout California neighborhoods as well as noisy, electromagnetic-field emitting refrigerator-sized “associated power equipment” on sidewalks.
These are excerpts of some testimonies in opposition who spoke at the July 12, 2017 hearing held by the Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance chaired by Miguel Santiago.
Coming Soon Soon to a Pole Near You
These antennas will emit biologically impacting radiation 24/7/365 and will be on the level of second stories of homes, apartments, office buildings and only a short distance from windows, balconies, parks, sidewalks, etc.
Senate Bill 649 would eliminate local permits for cellular equipment such as this across the state. (Kevin Mottus/California Brain Tumor Association)
The telecom industry wants to install 50,000 or more of these 4G/5G antennas and doesn’t want any interference from local authorities or residents.
Telecoms argue that since they will need to put these powerful RF emitting antennas every block they need a streamlined process that also minimizes license fees to the city. These fees have provided much needed income to local areas for basic revenue, but now this hugely profitable industry will use much public property and pay very little. Cities will be left with liability for their property but without the income formerly generated.
Cities are also concerned that they won’t be able to respond to legitimate residents’ concerns of health risks and reduced property values if the antennas are placed in front of or in back of homeowner’s property.
An estimated one to four million Californians already suffer from overexposure to existing levels of radiofrequency radiation, an environmentally induced illness called Electromagnetic Sensitivity. Electromagnetic Sensitivity is a federally recognized disability since 2002.
Over 250 of such people filled out forms on the website of Scientists4wiredtechnology.com within just the three days before the hearing. If this bill continues to pass through the state legislature, and it has passed through the Senate already, there will be nowhere to escape in cities and they fear they will need to move from their homes.
Historic areas are exempt. Coastal communities are governed under the California Coastal Commission so for this bill to go into effect in our coastal communities, telecoms will be required to go through the CCC process.
Firefighters negotiated a clause in the bill prohibiting installation of the antennas onto their firehouses because of their health concerns in return for dropping their opposition.
Children and fetuses, the sick and elderly are most vulnerable. Yet strong, healthy firefighters want to avoid more of this radiation. We think the firefighters deserve protection and we think we should all be protected. Effects are cumulative and no one is immune. Birds, bees, plants, trees, every creature is affected since we’re all electro-chemical.
Dr. Trevor Marshall testified against the bill explaining that people suffering from chronic illness are more sensitive to exposure to RF radiation and that it exacerbates their disease.
Current city council member and former Mayor of Nevada City, Reinette Senum, spoke against the bill as an elected official and as an early adopter of wireless technology; she had opened the first cellular phone store in Nevada County in 1990.
“I have learned enough about 4G/5G technology that I cannot support the expansion of these so-called “Small Cells” into residential zones….
“Governments and representatives, including Assembly Members and myself, have a responsibility to protect the quality of life of our constituents, protect public property in the public right-of-way, AND stop this corporate overreach,” declared Ms. Senum.
July 18, 2017 broadcast -Mary Beth Brangan, director of the Ecological Options Network, discusses 5G (the fifth generation of wireless technology) and California Senate Bill 649 limiting local control over the next generation of wireless technology and its implications for human and environmental health–and democracy.
________________________
Tony Stein and Cindy Franklin hold a protest banner on the steps of the California Department of Health in Sacramento, CA July7, 2017 EON photo by MB Brangan
Legislators & Telecoms Ignore the Peer-Reviewed Science
This dangerous legislation has never been heard in a committee authorized to oversee public or environmental health or toxic pollutants either in the Senate or in the Assembly.
Concerned people from various branches of the EMF Safety movement provided reams of credible, peer reviewed scientific studies; many impassioned injured Californians testified including people disabled by ‘smart’ meters, and brain tumor victims from cell phone radiation. These people, some forced to testify via phone because of inability to tolerate the levels of radiation from wi-fi in the legislature hearing rooms, were totally ignored. The discussion between legislators, the bill’s sponsor and the industry completely omitted any reference to possible adverse health, environmental and safety effects.
Meanwhile, on the same day as the hearing, on the south steps of the Capital building, there was a 30th anniversary extravaganza for the California Department of Public Health.
Musicians played while people flocked to the exhibits under tents.
Cell phone safety advocates Ellie Marks, Cindy Franklin and Toni Stein denounce the CA Department of Health’s refusal to release its own advisory report on radiation risks. They explain how the bill, SB 649, now moving through the legislature – and similar bills being pushed in states around the country – would eliminate any local authority over cell tower placement and result in toxic antennas lining every block leaving the public with no legal recourse.
The California Brain Tumor Association together with Consumers for Safe Cell Phones, organized a polite protest. They wanted the state agency in charge of radiological and other health aspects, to publicly release a cell phone warning document that it had suppressed since 2014.
Ellie Marks, Founder of California Brain Tumor Association. EON photo: MB Brangan
Here is more on that story and media on suppressed document.
If this document, admitting potential health risk from RF microwave radiation, had been released with appropriate outreach (95% of the population has at least one cell phone) the telecoms would have had to admit the very real health and environmental risks of increasing the forced exposure of this same RF radiation through SB 649.
The same RF microwave radiation that you have at least choice over whether you choose to turn off your phone would now be irradiating you 24/7/365 from only tens of feet away. Exposure is cumulative. Standards are obsolete and again, pregnant women, children, the ill and the elderly are most vulnerable. More on 5G health effects.
SB 649 is a horrific bill in California that we urgently need your support by Tuesday July 11 to oppose!
SB 649 gives telecommunications companies rubber stamp approval to install powerful microwave emitting antennas for 4G/5G every 4 to 12 houses on utility poles along the street! It removes local city and county authority over cellular facility placement and we would have no legal right to stop it.
Please take action!
Though this is focused on what’s happening in California now, similar bills are being introduced throughout the nation with ALEC co-distributing the bills. Watch out for it in your state!
Californians, we urgently need your support by Tuesday July 11 to oppose SB 649!
SB.649 will next be heard at the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee Hearing on Wed July 12, 2017 starting at 1:30 pm in State Capitol Room 437.
____________________
Join Our Peaceful Protest!
Coincidentally the California Dept of Public Health, CDPH, is holding a celebratory party on the south steps of the Capitol on July 12 from 10:30 am- noon. As many of you know they wrote a Cell Phone and Health Document for the public BUT refuse to release it.
Taxpayers paid for 27 versions but this will NOT be released to the public. Dr. Moskowitz sued the CDPH and won but they only had to release it to him. WE WANT THIS DOCUMENT RELEASED AND WE WILL BE HOLDING A PEACEFUL RALLY. Hiding the adverse health effects from radio frequency radiation is allowing the telecoms to increase these harmful exposures!
PLEASE JOIN US at 10:15 (pack a lunch or we can munch on CDPH refreshments!) and then at 1:00 we will head to the hearing.
________________________
We strongly oppose SB 649 because it eliminates local zoning authority, conflicts with federal and other laws, and increases harmful radio frequency radiation (RFR). International independent scientists are calling for reducing RFR based on peer reviewed published science showing RFR harms the public and nature, and children are especially vulnerable.
What you can do:
Please join us in Sacramento July 12 to speak to your elected representatives as well as at a peaceful protest before the hearing!
Call – (only 35 minutes of your time) phone numbers are below
Sample Talking Points: Links to references and studies for good quotes are from EON and EMFSafetyNetwork’s opposition letter and statement below. There are plenty of reasons for them to vote No.
Published and peer-reviewed studies show that proximity to antennas is hazardous — and SB 649 would increase the number of powerful microwave transmitters exponentially and bring them much closer to people.
Other peer-reviewed studies show that wireless radiation harms nature, including some studies on birds, trees, insects, and earthworms for example (and you could throw in, as an aside “not to mention people.”)
Current FCC wireless exposure guidelines, which SB 649 is supposed to follow, are completely inadequate and need to be brought up to date with a goal of protecting children, public health and the environment. Plus, those cell towers existing now are not monitored adequately for compliance. With hundreds of thousands more, there would be even less monitoring.
SB 649 will have terrible effects, based on these obsolete FCC guidelines that are not even enforced. Already existing RFR is making people sick. Vote NO on SB 649.
We would also urge you to visit (if you can) your elected officials in person on the effects of SB 649, both in Sacramento and in your city and county offices.
District Maps and Staff handling SB.649 for Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee
Additional Assembly member contact information is here.
Please see our position statement and flyer from EMF Safety Network and Ecological Options Network below.
We strongly oppose SB 649 because it eliminates local zoning authority, conflicts with federal and other laws, and increases harmful radio frequency radiation (RFR). International independent scientists are calling for reducing RFR based on peer reviewed published science showing RFR harms the public and nature, and children are especially vulnerable.
OPPOSE SB 649 (Hueso)
Let’s Get Healthy California or Increase Harmful Radiation?
You can’t have both.
SB 649 would put radio frequency radiation (RFR) cell towers on every block in every neighborhood and countryside in California with an over the counter permit.
Independent scientists citing peer reviewed studies are calling for immediate measures to reduce RFR. 179 cities and 32 counties oppose SB 649.
“Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans.”https://www.emfscientist.org/
Metering so-called “Small Cell” antenna mounted 20 feet high on light pole; faux-mailbox power supply exposes people to strong magnetic fields. EMR Specialist Eric Windheim measures radiation pollution. Scientists4WiredTech.org
19 “Small Cell” 4G Antennas with Faux-Mailbox Power Supplies in Palo Alto, CA
Eric Windheim BA, EMRS, BBEC – Certified Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist – Certified Building Biology Environmental ConsultantWindheimEMFSolutions.com
Shown above is Eric Windheim measuring the microwave emissions from what is euphemistically called a ‘small’ cell. The antennas installed along the streets in Palo Alto measured far higher than promised in the legislation and is high risk for all within range, specially the first 500 ft., according to many studies.
“…As if SB 649 wasn’t wreaking enough havoc on the ability for cities to protect their residents, the June 20, 2017 amendments completely deregulate and eliminate all oversight for “micro-wireless” facilities which can be equipment nearly three feet long dangling between utility poles, raising significant public safety issues such as obstructing traffic sight distance without any oversight. The bill also now applies a utility pole “attachment rate” formula which is inappropriate for equipment being placed on city buildings, street and traffic lights.
As amended, the bill is no longer limited to just “small cells.” It now applies broadly to all telecommunications providers and the equipment they use from “micro-wireless” to “small cell” to “macro-towers.” It’s clear from the direction of this bill, that this is not about 5G wireless deployment, but more about local deregulation of the entire telecommunications industry. This latest version places a new ban on city/county regulation of placement or operation of “communication facilities” within and outside the public right of way far beyond “small cells.” This new language would extend local preemption of regulation to any “provider authorized by state law to operate in the rights of way,” which can include communications facilities installed for services such as gas, electric, and water, leaving cities and counties with limited oversight only over “small cells.”
Health, environment and consumer justice organizations opposed to SB 649 include:
Citizens for Health, Environmental Working Group, Sierra Club California, California League of Conservation Voters, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Center for Environmental Health, The Utility
Reform Network, Teens Turning Green, As You Sow, Baby Safe Project, Bay Area Educators for
Safe Tech, California Brain Tumor Association, Ecological Options Network, EMF Safety
Network, Environmental Health Trust, EMR Protection Forum, Green Sangha, Health & Habitat
Inc, Marin Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Physicians for
Safe Technology, Radiation Research Trust, Sacramento Smart Meter Awareness, Sage
Associates, Scientists for Wired Technology, Seniors for Environmental Awareness, Stop Smart
Meters,Veterans for Radiation Safety, Windheim EMF Solutions, Wireless Radiation Alert
Network, Your Own Health and Fitness, and more.
Peer reviewed, published science shows RFR poses serious health and safety risks to the public and nature. Children are more vulnerable.
• The National Toxicology Program published a 25 million dollar study which is one of
the largest and most comprehensive studies on cell phone radiation and cancer. In
the study the rats exposed to cell phone radiation developed two types of cancers,
glioma, a brain tumor, and schwannoma, a tumor in the heart. The summary
includes,“Given the widespread global usage of mobile communications among
users of all ages, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting
from exposure to RFR could have broad implications for public health.”1
• The BioInitiative Report updated in 2012, prepared by 29 authors from ten
countries, reviewed 1800 studies and conclude,“EMF and RFR are preventable
toxic exposures. Proactive and immediate measures to reduce unnecessary EMF
exposures will lower disease burden and rates of premature death.”2
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organization
classifies wireless as a 2B (possible) carcinogen.3
Peer reviewed published studies show proximity to antennas is hazardous.
Neurobehavioral effects among inhabitants around mobile phone base stations “The
prevalence of neuropsychiatric complaints as headache (23.5%), memory changes
(28.2%), dizziness (18.8%), tremors (9.4%), depressive symptoms (21.7%), and sleep
disturbance (23.5%) were significantly higher among exposed inhabitants than
controls…”4
• Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations “We
found that eight of the 10 studies reported increased prevalence of adverse
neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500
meters from base stations.”5 Future cell tower plans are for 5G which emits millimeter waves. Peer reviewed
published science shows millimeter waves penetrate the skin and affect human health.6
Millimeter wave technology has been developed as a crowd control weapon which
causes acute burning pain, as if the body is on fire.7
• An analysis of studies on millimeter waves (MMWs) “State of knowledge on
biological effects at 40–60 GHz”8 states, “At the cellular level, it stands out from the
literature that skin nerve endings are probably the main targets of MMWs and the
possible starting point of numerous biological effects.” Effects reviewed include
effects on capillaries and nerve endings, protein insults, epigenetic regulation, and
the risk of homeostasis disruption, which would have dramatic consequences.
Despite the misleading title, the 5G MMW technology used in this weapon makes you feel like you’re burning alive. However, scientists are very concerned about the effects on biological systems from its use. Similar frequencies will be able to be deployed from utility poles if SB 649 is allowed to come into effect in California.
Assembly Member Miguel Santiago
Chair of the Communications and Conveyance Committee
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0053
RE: SB 649 Wireless and Small Cell Telecommunications Facilities (amended 7/3/2017)
Strongly oppose
Dear Assembly Member Miguel Santiago,
EMF Safety Network and Ecological Options Network 1 2 strongly oppose SB 649
regarding telecommunications facilities. SB 649 eliminates local zoning authority,
conflicts with federal and other laws, and increases harmful radio frequency radiation
(RFR). International independent scientists are calling for reducing RFR based on peer
reviewed published science showing RFR harms the public and nature, and children are
especially vulnerable.
SB 649 abandons the public to trust the telecom industry to certify safety and
RFR compliance with federal laws.
1) SB 649 eliminates local authority
SB 649 will allow a ministerial permit for antenna siting for the majority of local
governments. This over the counter permit will gift multiple companies unlimited access
to deploy unlimited antennas in our neighborhoods and countrysides. Local authority isneeded to ensure community safety and welfare , and compliance 3 with federal laws4.
SB 649 would overturn a recent California court case where San Francisco won the
right to determine antenna placement. The court discussed in detail and ruled Public
Utilities Codes 7901 and 7901.1 did not limit a city’s right to design review.5 SB 649
conflicts with California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) no and low cost EMF
avoidance policy6 adopted in 1993. In 2006 the CPUC upheld the policy, which included
RFR.7
2). SB 649 conflicts with federal laws
The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 preserves local zoning authority,
and requires compliance with environmental laws and RFR safety rules. An over
the counter permit would conflict with RFR compliance required by federal Law.
According to the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) website8:
• “Building a new tower or collocating an antenna on an existing structure requires
compliance with the Commission’s rules for environmental review. These rules
ensure that licensees and registrants take appropriate measures to protect
environmental and historic resources, and that the agency meets its obligations
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to consider the potential
environmental impact of its actions, as well as under other environmental statutes
such as the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the Endangered Species
Act (ESA).”
• “NEPA requires agencies to consider and disclose the environmental effects of its
actions to improve decision-making and encourage transparency, public
participation,and accountability. Effects are defined broadly to include ecological,
aesthetic, historic, social, and cumulative and indirect effects.”
• “Collocations, including Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) and Small Cells, may
also require compliance with these same processes.”
• “Section 332(c)(7) of the Communications Act preserves state and local authority
over zoning and land use decisions for personal wireless service facilities, but sets
forth specific limitations on that authority.” …”The statute also preempts local
decisions premised directly or indirectly on the environmental effects of radio
frequency (RF) emissions, assuming that the provider is in compliance with the
Commission’s RF rules.”
The fact that these antennas are called “small cell” does not mean they comply
with the FCC rules quoted above. The FCC calculates RFR by what the public’s
exposure levels are, including frequencies, radiated power, and distance.
For example:
• What frequencies will be used?
• What is the radiated power at the source?
• How many antennas are in one enclosure?
• What is the exposure level at ground level? at 20 feet? at 100 feet?
• What is the existing cumulative RFR exposure level at ground level? at 20 feet? at
100 feet?
• Is the ground flat or falling? If not, what are the exposure levels at what height and
distance?
• What is the future colocation RFR exposure?
SB 649 also conflicts with federal law (Section 6409) which exempts cities from antenna
modifications on city property.9
3) California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) laws apply
The deployment of a denser “small cell” antenna system is a major change to the
environment, not a minor one, and therefore subject to CEQA laws. There is no
substantial evidence to support SB649’s determination that the deployment fits the
CEQA exemption. There is substantial evidence in support of a fair argument that the
“project may create environmental impacts. Whenever it can be fairly argued on the”
“basis of substantial evidence that there is a reasonable possibility that a project may have a significant effect on the environment, an exemption is not proper.”
“4) Telecoms’ interests should not outweigh city and county jurisdiction”
““Telecoms want customers… Wireless service has become essential… for better quality”
“of life.” These claims were part of the supporters testimony at the Local Government Committee hearing on June 28, 2017. Not all Californians want their homes, neighborhoods, towns, and rural country-sides to be polluted with RFR. Telecom deployment serves the unbounded profit motive of telecom corporations. What is in the best public interest is to avoid unnecessary RFR exposures. There is a growing movement of educated Americans who are aware of cancer and other health impacts associated with RFR. In California tens of thousands of utility customers have refused, or opted out of smart meters. Significant percentages of people, those already sickened, and those trying to avoid being injured, adamantly oppose being involuntarily exposed to more radiation for benefit of telecommunications profits. Access to the internet is safer using wired connections. Wireless is not an essential public service.”
“5) The FCC historically honors local control”
“On July 14, 2016 FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel stated during her approval”
“of 5G millimeter wave deployment, “By law and tradition we honor local control in”
“this country.”10”
“SB 649 should be opposed because it will dishonor and impede local”
“control and deliberately thwart public participation. We support the comments of The”
“League of California Cities who state SB 649, “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally strips local authority over public property and shuts out public input and local discretion by eliminating consideration of the aesthetic and environmental impacts of “small cells.””
“6) SB 649 increases harmful RFR exposure to humans and nature.”
“International independent scientists are calling for immediate measures to reduce RFR. Peer reviewed, published science shows RFR poses serious health and safety impacts”to the public and nature. Children are more vulnerable.
• 224 scientists have signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal: “We are
scientists engaged in the study of biological and health effects of non-ionizing
electromagnetic fields (EMF). Based upon peer-reviewed, published research, we
have serious concerns regarding the ubiquitous and increasing exposure to EMF
generated by electric and wireless devices. These include–but are not limited to–
radiofrequency radiation (RFR) emitting devices, such as cellular and cordless
phones and their base stations, Wi-Fi, broadcast antennas, smart meters, and baby
monitors as well as electric devices and infra-structures used in the delivery of
electricity that generate extremely-low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF).”
“Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free
radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive
system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts
on general well-being in humans.” 11 Scientists quotes:
• “Based upon epidemiological studies there is consistent evidence of
increased risk for brain tumors (glioma and acoustic neuroma) associated
with use of wireless phones.” Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD University Hospital,
Orebro, Sweden
• “The harmful effects of electromagnetic fields, regardless of their
frequencies, are now scientifically settled. Pregnant women (the fetus) and
children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable.”- Dominique
Belpomme, MD, MPH, Paris V Descartes University, European Cancer &
Environment Research institute.
• “Migratory birds — incredibly important to the global economy and for the
ecological services they provide — now appear to be negatively affected by
non-ionizing radiation.” Dr. Albert Manville, Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins
University; Senior Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS),
Emeritus/Retired
• The National Toxicology Program published a 25 million dollar study which is one of
the largest and most comprehensive studies on cell phone radiation and cancer. Inthe study the rats exposed to cell phone radiation developed two types of cancers,
glioma, a brain tumor, and schwannoma, a tumor in the heart. The summary
includes,“Given the widespread global usage of mobile communications among
users of all ages, even a very small increase in the incidence of disease resulting
from exposure to RFR could have broad implications for public health.”12
• The BioInitiative Report updated in 2012, prepared by 29 authors from ten
countries, reviewed 1800 studies and conclude,“EMF and RFR are preventable
toxic exposures. We have the knowledge and means to save global populations
from multi-generational adverse health consequences by reducing both ELF and
RFR exposures. Proactive and immediate measures to reduce unnecessary EMF
exposures will lower disease burden and rates of premature death.”13
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organization
classifies RFR as a 2B (possible) carcinogen.14
7) Peer reviewed published studies show proximity to antennas is hazardous.
Neurobehavioral effects among inhabitants around mobile phone base stations “The
prevalence of neuropsychiatric complaints as headache (23.5%), memory changes
(28.2%), dizziness (18.8%), tremors (9.4%), depressive symptoms (21.7%), and sleep
disturbance (23.5%) were significantly higher among exposed inhabitants than
controls…”15
• Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations “We
found that eight of the 10 studies reported increased prevalence of adverse
neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500
meters from base stations.”16
8) Future cell tower plans are for 5G which emits millimeter waves. Peer reviewed published science shows millimeter waves penetrate the skin and affect human health.17
Millimeter wave technology has been developed as a crowd control weapon which
causes acute burning pain, as if the body is on fire.18
• An analysis of studies on millimeter waves (MMWs) “State of knowledge on
biological effects at 40–60 GHz”19 states, “At the cellular level, it stands out from
the literature that skin nerve endings are probably the main targets of MMWs and
the possible starting point of numerous biological effects.” Effects reviewed include
effects on capillaries and nerve endings, protein insults, epigenetic regulation, and
the risk of homeostasis disruption, which would have dramatic consequences.
9) Peer reviewed published studies show RFR exposure harms nature.
• The US Department of the Interior states RFR threatens birds, and they criticize the
FCC’s radiation safety guidelines stating,“the electromagnetic radiation standards
used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continue to be based on
thermal heating, a criterion now nearly 30 years out of date and inapplicable today.”
Two hundred forty one bird species are at mortality risk from both tower collisions
and from exposure to the radiation towers emit. This includes birds that are
endangered or threatened, Birds of Conservation Concern, migratory birds, and
eagles. Studies of radiation impacts on wild birds documented nest abandonment,
plumage deterioration and death. Birds studied included House Sparrows, White
Storks, Collared Doves, and other species. Studies in laboratories of chick
embryos documented heart attacks and death.20
• Scientists in Germany studied tree damage in relation to electromagnetic radiation
from 2006-2015. They monitored, observed and photographed unusual or
unexplainable tree damage, and measured the radiation the trees were exposed
too.“The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a connection betweenunusual (generally unilateral) tree damage and radiofrequency exposure.” They
found significant differences between the damaged side of a tree facing a phone
mast and the opposite side, as well as differences between the exposed side of
damaged trees and all other groups of trees in both sides. They found no tree
damage in low radiation areas. The scientists concluded, “Statistical analysis
demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone masts is harmful
for trees.”21
• Studies show insects are harmed by radiation: Food collection and response to
pheromones in an ant species exposed to electromagnetic radiation found
exposure to radiation caused colony deterioration and affected social insects’
behavior and physiology.22 Oxidative and genotoxic effects of 900 MHz
electromagnetic fields in the earthworm concluded radiation caused genotoxic
effects and DNA damage in earthworms23.
• Mobile Phone Induced Honey Bee Worker Piping. The study abstract states,“The
worldwide maintenance of the honeybee has major ecological, economic, and
political implications.” Cell phone RFR was tested for potential effects on honeybee
behavior. Handsets were placed in the close vicinity of honeybees and the sound
made by the bees was recorded and analyzed. The information revealed that active
cell phone handsets induced the bees worker piping signal. “In natural conditions,
worker piping either announces the swarmingSB 649 is an unnecessary gift to the telecom industry.
Respectfully submitted on July 6, 2017:
/s/_____________________ Sandi Maurer, Director
EMF Safety Network
PO Box 1016
Sebastopol CA 95473
/s/_____________________ Mary Beth Brangan, Co-Director
Ecological Options Network
PO Box 1047
Bolinas CA 94924
Sources:
1 EMF Safety Network (EMFSN) was founded in 2009. Our mission is to educate and
empower people by providing science and solutions to reduce EMFs, achieve public
policy change, and obtain environmental justice. We have participated in proceedings at
the California Public Utilities Commission since 2010. www.emfsafetynetwork.org
2 Ecological Options Network(EON) was founded in 2003, is a 501 (c) (3) organization
that networks with utility customers and organizations to empower policy protecting
health, environment and consumer rights. http://www.eon3.net/
3 Cal. Const., art. XI, §7 “A county or city may make and enforce within its limits all local,
police, sanitary, and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws.”
4 FCC Tower and Antenna Siting: https://www.fcc.gov/general/tower-and-antenna-siting
5 T-Mobile West vs City and County of San Francisco (Appeal denied):
‘Smart’ Meters, Forced Wireless Phones and Pulsed Microwave Emitters Everywhere!
by Mary Beth Brangan
We have three huge new emerging sources of pulsed microwave emissions:
1) The telecom industry push to install millions more microwave emitting antennas and to completely remove any antenna regulation at National, state and local levels. Here in California it’s written in SB 649 that’s already passed by the Senate and looking like it’s going to sail through the Assembly. (as of June 26.)
2) AT&T is in the process of eliminating landlines, forcing wireless phones for those in its territories.
3) Utilities installing ‘smart’ meters on homes and businesses, schools and stores that pulse microwaves thousands of times per day non-stop.
The timelines for these three are slightly different, but all will combine in the next few years – unless we stop them.
The Problem: Telecoms are De-regulating Themselves
The wireless industry wants full control of the process of placing millions more cell antennas for transmitting microwaves for 4G and 5G products. They feel the local city and county discretion of cell tower placement and legal compliance is too onerous since there will be so many. Voila! Write legislation that removes local jurisdiction. So the Telecoms wrote boiler plate legislation co-authored through ALEC as well as enlisting help from Trump. These bills have been introduced into a few states so far. Ohio passed their bill but then 80 Ohio cities sued the state over its removal of their local authority.
California’s bill is SB 649 which is designed to allow 4G/5G equipment – very powerful two-way microwave-transmitters to be placed on virtually every utility pole, light pole even non pole structures in the public rights-of-way in both commercial and residential zones. The bill will also allow ‘associated equipment’ power supply cabinets right on the sidewalk as large as 35 cubic feet next to each pole or non-pole mounted microwave transmitter. 5G would deploy multiple centimeter and millimeter microwaves and RF/MW radiation that has been heavily tested by scientists. Much of it is now declassified military research in the public domain.
Certain sized 5G waves (from 28 GHz to 90 GHz) do not penetrate buildings or human tissue as deeply as 4G microwaves – they concentrate their energy on the outer surfaces of buildings or living organisms (skin, eyes, ears.) These smaller 5G waves don’t travel as far as 4G waves and thus require closely spaced cell towers.
Nearly 150 cities and counties in California oppose SB 649 as well as the League of California Cities; we sincerely hope California’s League of Cities will also sue if the legislation passes.
Electro-Magnetic Denialism
Legislators and Telecoms continue to assume no biological effects exist from pulsing microwaves and continue to ignore the following facts.
SB 649 ignores the California Constitution. The California Constitution declares safety an inalienable right, yet SB 649 mandates compulsory microwave exposure for the public – for men, for women, for children, for pregnant women, for infants, for the elderly, for the infirm and disabled, for those already disabled by electromagnetic sensitivities (EMS) caused by overexposure. (We know many of these unfortunate people.) It is rolling out a new level of microwave-emitting infrastructure without informed consent, increasing public exposure dramatically.
Disability due to electromagnetic sensitivity (EMS) was recognized by the U.S. Access Board in 2002. SB 649 ignores this. SB 649 also ignores a 1998 survey by the California Department of Health Services finding 3.2% of respondents were very sensitive or allergic to EMF. That was over 1 million Californians in 1998 when RF exposure levels were much lower. There is no current prevalence data for EMS in California.
Already existing pulsed microwave emission exposures to the public are sickening growing numbers daily. That number is surely much greater now in 2017 with the ongoing explosion of microwave transmitters and emissions from devices like ‘smart’ meters, ’smart’ phones, wi-fi, baby monitors, I-pads and tablets, geoengineering, weather modification, electronic surveillance and directed energy weaponry.
This is happening despite a mass of well documented and peer-reviewed research on the serious public health and safety concerns from increasing and widespread electromagnetic pollution. Risks include: lack of safety and privacy; growing numbers of digital dementia, sickened, disabled people, plants and wildlife caused by RF/EMF.
California Fire Fighters realize the severe health risks from these pulsed microwave emitters and have negotiated a deal to prevent them from being placed on Fire Houses. We want our essential Fire Fighters to be protected, yet we all deserve protection. The Fire Fighters asked for and received an exemption based on negative health effects from RF/MW radiation exposures. The basis for this is the 2004 brain study of California Fire Fighters which showed brain abnormalities, cognitive impairment, delayed reaction time and lack of impulse control in all firefighters tested.
In California, SB 649 has already been passed by the state Senate and is being rushed through the Assembly. Amendments June 20 have changed this from a seriously dangerous bill to a horrific one.
SB 649 amendments would open the right of way to macro cell towers, as well as “small cells” on utility poles, without regulation, and the bill preempts regulation of broadband over powerline.
Although SB649 proponents claim a huge financial bonanza from additional microwave emitting antenna deployment, there is no objective evidence to support this claim. The cell phone industry is a mature industry: everyone who wants a cell phone already has one. Driverless cars and the Internet of Things are some of the new uses being visioned by industry. The frequencies used by 5G are also used by the Dept. of Defense crowd control weapon, ‘Active Denial’ that works by inflicting unbearable pain, as if your body is on fire.
Millions more cell towers would be along every street, every 4 to 10 homes at second story levels and lower. Multiple antennas could be placed on each pole, with emissions that can reach 5 miles. Yet, current recommendations are for at least 1,500 foot set-backs from people, homes, medical facilities, fire and police facilities, elder care facilities, schools and wilderness areas from a single antenna 200 ft. high. However, with SB 649, microwave exposures may be as close as 12 to 15 ft. and possibly from multiple antennas.
Several studies from around the world show people within the first 500 ft. of a microwave emitting antenna have much higher adverse health effects, including cancer. Once again, children, pregnant women, the ill, the elderly and those already injured by overexposure are most vulnerable. There will be no where to escape from these microwave emissions.
What you can do: Contact your Assembly Members URGENTLY to oppose SB 649. Contact info: http://alcl.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff & http://acom.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff. It would also be very helpful to urge opposition to be expressed from any major organizations you may be members of, or fund.
If letters in opposition to SB 649 are sent before 1:30 pm JUNE 28, they should be sent to:
Assembly Member Cecilia M. Aguiar-Curry,
Chair of the Local Government Committee
1020 N Street, Room 157
Sacramento, California 95814
RE: SB 649 Wireless and Small Cell Telecommunications Facilities (amended 6/20/2017)
Strongly Oppose
A brief statement of strong opposition to SB 649 is all that’s needed right now.
At this point it’s not about persuading but about numbers of calls.
If the staff member is not available you will likely be asked if you want their email. Obviously that’s tough for you, Shary, if you have limited access to a online work right now, but …
you can ask to leave a message or have the receptionist make a record that you’re calling in strong opposition.
I do feel calls are important tomorrow morning before the hearing. Numbers matter.
Additional Assembly member contact information is here.
Courtesy EMFSafetyNetwork.org
2) The Problem: In areas that were strenuously opposing, ‘Smart’ meters are again being forced onto homes.
PG&E is again forcing homeowners to allow installation of harmful ‘smart’ meters on homes in West Marin, Fairfax and other areas that previously had moratoriums against it. These electronic meters pulse microwave radiation that travels 2 miles and emits thousands of times per day, non-stop, 24/7, 365 days per year. Because a neighbor’s meter emissions can penetrate adjacent homes, EON, along with others, argued for Community-wide opt out in a special proceeding at the California Public Utilities Commission. The corrupt Commission, however, merely pretended that was not part of the discussion and ruled against us, though it was clearly defined in the initial proceeding scope.
Courtesy EMFSafetyNetwork.org
What you can do: Unfortunately, all we can do now is to ‘opt out’ though we never opted in to such a dangerous scheme in the first place. You must contact PG&E to refuse the ‘smart’ meter, or AMI, or any electronic meter (they call them different names) and pay the fees that we consider extortion because you will be paying to not have a harmful meter on your own home. Various legal challenges have been made over the past years, but the courts always refer the challenges back to the CPUC. You must pay the $75 up front charge and agree to pay $10 extra per month for three years. If you change addresses or names on your electric bill, the whole process starts over, according to PG&E rules. Customers enrolled in the CPUC’s low income program (California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE)) electing to opt-out will be assessed an initial fee of $10 and a monthly charge of $5.
If you can get your neighbors to agree to opt out too, it will be more protective against the harmful pulsed microwaves that transfer into your house wiring and cause pulsing out from between 3 and 8 feet out from the wires in your walls.
3) The Problem: AT&T wants to stop servicing their copper wires and eliminate their landline service.
Many AT&T customers depend on landlines for service; small businesses, the elderly, the hard of hearing, the poor. Landlines are essential in situations when the electrical power is down for any length of time, since they still operate when cell and smart phones do not. Tellingly, after a recent natural disaster, Florida’s governor pleaded with people to preserve their landlines. Landlines are essential for emergency calls, since your location isn’t transmitted automatically when calling 911 on a cell phone.
19 states voted to allow AT&T to discontinue landlines. California did not; in 2016 state legislators voted against AT&T dropping this legacy service. Too many people rely on it, despite widespread use of cell phones. Yet AT&T is beginning their process anyway which is slated to be finished by 2020.
This last May, 2017, AT&T customers across the country, including California, found an Amendment to their Service Agreement insert in their bills warning that if AT&T wanted to install electrical equipment on their premises, they must allow them as well as agreeing to both pay the extra for the equipment and pay for the electricity to operate it. If you did not agree to this, AT&T warned, your telephone service may be disconnected. The deadline AT&T gave was July 1, 2017. Many people didn’t recognize the small insert as anything other than advertising and didn’t even read it. This is an attempt by AT&T to abandon reliable copper landlines and a ‘forced migration’ to AT&T’s digital U-verse service, forcing an Opt-in by default. (According to one AT&T service rep.)
What you can do:
1.) Call AT&T, 800-288-2020. ask for a center manager, let them know you object to the loss of your landline. You must contact and complain to AT&T before filing a complaint with the CPUC.
2.) File an official complaint with the CPUC, https://appsssl.cpuc.ca.gov/cpucapplication/, get a file number for that complaint if you do it online, or ask for a confirmation number if you complain by phone. 3.) Do not allow AT&T to install any new equipment on your property without full disclosure of what it is, what it does, and how it differs from your current service. 4.) Mark any payments to AT&T paid under protest. You could also say ‘no forced migration’ and ‘keep my landline.’
Tell the CPUC’s complaint department: Customers are being threatened and misinformed by the rogue activity of AT&T. Customers should be told exactly what equipment is involved, what is planned, what their options are, a resource for getting help or information, and what portions of what contractual relationships or agreements AT&T is using to justify their actions. Please, CAB, take action against these errors. The CPUC should fine AT&T make them issue corrective Notices and apologies. Please, respond to me and give me a file number for this complaint. (this info is for an informal complaint) Thank you.
You can also file a formal CPUC complaint. But the BEST method is to appear before the formal agenda begins at the regular CPUC business meetings and speak your mind. That’s the only sure way to be heard in this system.
If you want to keep your landline, NOW is the time to fight to save it. Pass this information on to others as it is being done surreptitiously.
Who will pay the price for AT&Ts aggressive push to end traditional landline service?
Seniors
Businesses
Working Families
People with health issues
Disabled and blind
Residents of rural areas
Individuals who want a choice
Loss of reliable 911 emergency services
Why is the loss of traditional, reliable landlines a travesty to all residents and businesses? 911 emergency services will not work during a power outage. This is critical for everyone concerned. All phone service available, including AT&T U-verse, requires electricity to operate the equipment. Even cell phones need to be charged, which is not possible during extended power outages.
Before the last hurricane in Florida, the Governor was repeating on TV and radio announcements, “Get a landline! Keep and maintain a landline.”
During Hurricane Sandy the only residents that could stay in touch with others were the ones who could use landlines. All communication devices dependent on electricity were useless. Cell phones could not be charged and computer-based phone lines dependent on a cable modem, would not work without electricity.
Illinois may not get hurricanes, but the state has had its share of floods, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms that caused power outages.
AARP says,
“Recent wireless 911 outages show that telecommunications companies have yet to offer a viable alternative for a significant number of customers. In March, for example, a wireless 911 outage hit AT&T wireless customers in 14 states for about five hours, forcing police departments to urge people to call alternative numbers in an emergency.”
AT&T motive for dismantling copper-wired landlines
AT&Ts reason for aggressively pushing legislation through the General Assembly is to release the corporation from the responsibility for maintaining copper-wired phone lines. AT&Ts agenda: Move customers to computer-based (VoIP) phone services. For the consumer this means using a high speed Internet connection through a cable modem which runs on electricity.
Citizens Utility Board says,
“AT&T, which made $13 billion in profits in 2016, wants the power to end traditional phone service and force customers to use computer-based or wireless substitutes. That could subject those customers to higher bills and unreliable service.”
“AT&T claims that its 1.2 million business and residential landline customers have viable alternatives to traditional servic . . . for many people — including seniors, low-income families and rural residents — home phone service is the most reliable, affordable lifeline to vital services such as 911, home security systems and medical monitoring devices.”
No reliable alternatives to landline phone services
A U. S. Senator leading the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (which has jurisdiction over the FCC) writes to a constituent:
“For decades, Americans have counted on the nation’s landline communications network and its reliability. Even in a time of great change in our communications networks, I agree that landline voice service is an important service. In fact, many people do not realize that wireless communications networks themselves rely upon the availability of landline communications networks to function effectively. It is critical that consumers are protected during this technological change and that new networks provide the same level of reliability as our legacy landline infrastructure.”
AT&T’s alternative, computer-based VoIP, does not provide the same level of reliability. U-verse is NOT a viable alternative.
Professionals and businesses that require secure phone service count on landlines. Law firms, real estate offices, medical facilities, government offices, and financial institutions use landlines because they are cyber-secure and not connected to the Internet. During a power outage, these businesses have to continue providing consumers with vital services. For cyber-secure, uninterrupted phone service, landlines are the only viable option.
Warnings from AARP:
Forcing people onto alternatives, such as wireless or computer-based phone service, could subject them to higher bills, lack of service in extended power outages, spotty reception and dropped calls.
Landline telephone service allows residents to have reliable access to emergency services; it helps low-income families to connect with job opportunities; it helps small businesses to stay in business and connect with new opportunities and customers; and it allows older residents and residents in rural areas to stay connected to family, friends, and neighbors, as well as vital services. Furthermore, [landline telephone service] saves callers millions of dollars by having access to affordable calling plans.
“Those who depend on home phone service shouldn’t have that choice stripped away.”
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Dangerous new combination of pulsing microwave radiation coming!
Help Stop a Telecom Coup Attempt
Cities throughout California are joining others across the country in opposing a fast-tracked mass build-out of radio-toxic ‘small cell’ 5G millimeter wave antennas being pushed by the telecommunications industry and its captive regulatory agency, the Federal Communication Commission.
Encourage your city or county to join the fight. Here’s why and how.
Antennas at every 4th to 12th House – various sized bases up to refrigerator-size on every block? The Telecom industry says “Get out of our way!” Across the country, city governments are saying, “NO”
SB649 will streamline placement of 5G small cell Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) on electric and light poles in front of businesses and residences. This bill eliminates local control and jurisdiction in regard to small cell distributed antenna systems (DAS) placement throughout the state of California. SB.649: Wireless Telecommunications Bill Read more at Oppose CA
California Bill SB 649 is at the Governance and Finance Committee right now.
Please write and/or call the senators and tell them to vote ’NO’ to CA Bill SB 649.
In addition , please write on their twitter account.
Your comments will be perpetually in cyberspace and everyone will see it.
We need many people to show up at the hearing on April 26, 9:30am, Room 112 at the Sacramento Capitol.
We will meet at Starbucks at 8:30 am on 4/26/17: 1123 12th St/L St., Sacramento, CA 95814
I am going to Sacramento for this on April 26. If anyone wants a ride please let me know- or perhaps we can all take the train together. This is a major power play by industry to put 5G wherever they want it and they are the only ones that truly benefit from this. We must stop this bill.
Please distribute this to your mailing lists. If people do not reside in CA they can still write to the legislative directors and/or the Senators on the committee.
PLEASE WRITE TO THEM NOW and ask them to vote NO ON SB 649- DO NOT WAIT FOR THESE MILLIMETER MICROWAVE ANTENNAS TO BE OUTSIDE YOUR HOMES.
Legislative directors emails:
Senator McGuire- Annabel.snider@sen.ca.gov
Senator Beall- lynne.andres@sen.ca.gov
Senator Nguyen- Elizabeth.watson@sen.ca.gov
Senator Lara- megan.baier@sen.ca.gov
Senator Hernandez- alex.norring@sen.ca.gov
Senator Hertzberg- Michael.bedard@sen.ca.gov
Senator Moorlach- Catherine.bird@sen.ca.gov
The senators emails are in this format- senator.mcquire@senate.ca.gov
Excellent points are included below. Basically 5G will need antennas and boxes every 4-5 homes and will be in the public right of ways- they will even have fake mailboxes with 5G equipment on them. This is very powerful microwave radiation and we do not want it outside our homes and offices. Russia has banned it and replaced it with fiber optics.
The California League of Cities is opposed to SB 649 but it passed unanimously through the first committee.
See Phone Numbers Below.
SenatorMike McGuire (Chair) – 2nd Senate Dist — North Coast/North Bay,
State Capitol Rm. 5061, email: senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov, Phone: 916-651-4002
SenatorJanet Nguyen (Vice Chair): 34th Senate Dist — NW Orange County,
State Capitol Rm. 3048, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4034
SenatorJim Beall:15th Senate Dist — Including cities of San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino,
State Capitol Rm. 2082, email via website portal Phone: (916) 651-4015
SenatorEd Hernandez: 22nd Senate Dist — San Gabriel Valley communities
State Capitol Rm. 2080, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4022
SenatorRobert M. Hertzberg: 18th Senate Dist — San Fernando Valley
State Capitol Rm. 4038, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4018
SenatorRicardo Lara: 33rd Senate Dist — LA & LA County-various cities
State Capitol Rm. 5050, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4033
SenatorJohn M. W. Moorlach: 37th Senate Dist – Much of Orange County
State Capitol Rm. 2048, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4037
Points to help you draft letters, make calls and/or give testimony at the hearing, provided are some sound bites for you to give to the Governance & Finance Committee:
Taking away property rights will result in lowered property value
Lowered property value will then lead to lowered property tax revenues
US NTP $25 million dollar study proved RF emissions from 2G causes DNA breaks, cancers of the brain and heart.
Over 220 international scientists have sent an appeal to the WHO that RF emissions are already out of control, and this statement was made two years ago.
Increase in health care costs due to growing health problems amongst the population
Lowered productivity at work due to negative health impacts from the increased wireless radiation exposures
Lloyd’s of London and Swiss Re, two major insurance companies of the world, will not cover medical expenses incurred due to exposure to electromagnetic radio frequency radiation (EMR) (i.e. cellphones, wifi, cell tower, antennas, DAS, IoT devices, smart meters, etc.)
Environmental devastation from loss of oxygen producing foliage due to damage of trees and vegetation from EMR exposures
Environmental devastation from astronomical increases of approximately 124,416 lbs. of CO2 per city every day, or 1.6 trillion lbs. of carbon per year nationwide emissions from powering up the 5G DAS infrastructure 24/7 (and this does not include the carbon footprint created from all the other IoT network and clouds)
Fiber optics is the best and only solution. They are energy efficient, less vulnerable to shut down due to EMP or hacking, and do not create hazardous RF emissions that cause damage to health and the environment
Russia has denied 5G rollout in their country. Instead, they are utilizing fiber optic cables to deliver the internet to every private resident.
If you have any question please email Mark at mark.graham@scientists4wiredtech.com
WE RETURN YOU NOW TO OUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING…
A Threat to Us All
For the growing numbers of electro-sensitive people in our population, adding the 5G antenna network to the current electro-magnetic soup in which we already live would intensify it into a living nightmare. For the rest of us, it would speed our joining their ranks. The 5G antenna rollout would combine all other frequencies currently being used for wireless devices (3G, 4G) plus unlimited bandwidth for the Telecom vision of wirelessly connecting everything such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and driverless cars. Despite industry and government denials and cover-up attempts,independent research data shows conclusively that man-made radiation, much stronger than natural background radiation, disrupts human beings and other living creatures, since we are electro-chemical beings exquisitely tuned to the natural environment.
The attached pictures show the true size of the base of some of these so-called ‘small’ cells. Placed every four to twelve houses and in rural areas, even more frequently, these antennas represent a huge intrusion into our common space. There would be no escape, not even in our homes, not even in rural areas. All living things would be effected.
80 Ohio cities filed suit against Ohio because of the passage of Senate Bill 331 that, as one Mayor put it, “… effectively prohibits cities from regulating the placement of wireless facilities in our communities. This will impact the streetscapes of our communities and reduce area property values.”
But danger to local democratic choice and property values pales in relation to the dangers to public health and safety posed by these boiler plate bills that are being pushed in various versions state-by-state by the telecom industry. The California clone bill now before the legislature is SB 649.
In California the growing municipal push-back already includes the City of San Francisco, the California League of Cities and the Marin County Council of Mayors and Council members and Santa Cruz County (as of April 12.)
5G antennae come in many forms
OPPOSITION: (as of April 4, 2017)
American Planning Association
CA Chapter of the American Planning Association
California State Association of Counties
City of Buena Park
City of Chino Hills
City of Citrus Heights
City of Cloverdale
City of Dublin
City of Hayward
City of Indian Wells
City of Lafayette
City of Laguna Beach Mayor
City of Lakeport
City of Lodi
City of Murrieta
City of National City
City of Nevada City
City of Norwalk
City of Point Arena
City of Roseville
City of Santa Clara
City of Santee
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Vista
EMF Safety Network
Ecological Options Network
League of California Cities
Marin County Council of Mayors and
Councilmembers
Northern California Power Agency
Protect our Local Streets Coalition
Rural County Representatives of California
Scientists for Wired Technology
Town of Danville
Town of Hillsborough
Urban Counties of California
An Individual
Why Resist?
Ecological Options Network opposes this bill because it would fast track wireless radiation antenna deployments in our neighborhoods and communities, remove all regulations protecting public and environmental rights, thwart public participation and expose us and all lifeforms to exponentially increased harmful radiation.
The telecommunication industry, like the tobacco industry, still denies the scientifically established effects of their product. That the Dept. of Defense uses the same frequency as 5G in their crowd control weapon belies that denial. The ‘Active Denial’ weapon directs a beam of 5G – like millimeter waves that cause unbearably intense burning pain.
5G millimeter wave technology is scientifically shown to affect humans, penetrating the skin and affecting all biological systems.
(Thanks to Nina Beety)
Microwave radiation is a Class 2B – possible — carcinogen according to the World Health Organization IARC, but last year the NIH National Toxicology Program found cellphone radiation caused cancer. The NTP released final peer-reviewed results that 1 in 12 male rats – 8.5% — developed malignant brain tumors, malignant heart tumors, or precancerous lesions when exposed to wireless radiation for only two years, 9 hours per day. Ken Foster of the industry association Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) said he
Then, in March, ABC 7: CA HEALTH DEPT. RELEASES REPORT SAYING CELLPHONE USE MAY CAUSE CANCER
Now a new report says that the state of California may have kept information about the cancer risk secret. This is significant because it comes from a government agency and it mentions radiation and its harmful effects. It also mentioned that children are more susceptible to the effects of radiation.
Research has previously found cancer clusters around cell towers, up to ¼ mile away. Wireless radiation is associated with breaches in the blood-brain barrier, DNA damage, changes in the blood, heart rhythm disturbances, neurological, cognitive function, and immune impacts, cancers and tumors, migraines, and insomnia.
The League of California Cities opposes SB-649. They describe it stating, “This proposal unnecessarily and unconstitutionally strips local authority over public property and shuts out public input and local discretion by eliminating consideration of the aesthetic and environmental impacts of “small cells.”
The All-Knowing-House – appliances eavesdrop for the NSA and whisper behind your back. How ‘smart’ is that?
How to Oppose this bill (thanks to Lena Pu and Nina Beety)
California Bill SB 649 is at the Governance and Finance Committee right now. Please write or call the senators and tell them to vote ’NO’ to CA Bill SB 649. In addition to writing and/or calling, please write on their twitter account; your comments will be perpetually in cyberspace and everyone will see it. And we need as many people to show up at the hearing on April 26, 9:30am, Room 112 at the Sacramento Capitol.
Anton Favorini-Csorba is the consultant writing the legislative analysis of SB 649 for the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. Written opposition is due as soon as possible so that he can include the names of groups and entities opposing SB 649 in the analysis; absolute deadline is next Wednesday, April 19. If you have arguments you want considered in the analysis, send him the info asap.
You can also send it to https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/ You have to create an account first.
A copy should also be sent to the author of the bill as a “courtesy” — in this case, Sen. Hueso.
Senator Mike McGuire (Chair) 2nd Senate Dist — North Coast/North Bay, State Capitol Rm. 5061, email: senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov, Phone: 916-651-4002
Senator Janet Nguyen (Vice Chair) 34th Senate Dist — NW Orange County, State Capitol Rm. 3048, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4034
Senator Jim Beall 15th Senate Dist — Including cities of San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, State Capitol Rm. 2082, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4015
Senator Ed Hernandez 22nd Senate Dist — San Gabriel Valley communities, State Capitol Rm. 2080, email via website portal,Phone: (916) 651-4022
Senator Robert M. Hertzberg 18th Senate Dist — San Fernando Valley, State Capitol Rm. 4038, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4018
Senator Ricardo Lara 33rd Senate Dist — LA & LA County-various cities, State Capitol Rm. 5050, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4033
Senator John M. W. Moorlach 37th Senate Dist — Much of Orange County, State Capitol Rm. 2048, email via website portal, Phone: (916) 651-4037
Send your comments also to your State Senator which you can find here: Type in your address and city. https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
To help with your letters, calls and/or public comments, here are some sound bites relating to the Governance & Finance Committee.:
– Taking away property rights will result in lowered property value
– Lowered property value will then lead to lowered property tax revenues
– Increase in health care costs due to growing health problems amongst the population
– Lowered productivity at work due to negative health impacts from the increased wireless radiation exposures
– Lloyd’s of London and Swiss Re, two major insurance companies of the world, will not cover medical expenses incurred due to exposure to electromagnetic radio frequency radiation (EMR) (i.e. cellphones, wifi, cell tower, antennas, DAS, IoT devices, smart meters, etc.)
– Environmental devastation from loss of oxygen producing foliage due to damage of trees and vegetation from EMR exposures
– Environmental devastation from astronomical increases of approximately 124,416 lbs. of CO2 per each city with populations over 35,000 every day, or 1.6 trillion lbs. of carbon per year nationwide emissions from powering up the 5G infrastructure 24/7 (and this does not include the carbon footprint created from all the other Internet of Things (IoT) network and the storage clouds.)
– Fiber optics is the best and only solution. Fiber Optics are energy efficient, not prone to hacking, and do not create hazardous EMR emissions that causes damage to health and the environment
Also Tell City of Sacramento ‘No’ to 5G pilot program:
Please send letters of opposition to the proposed rollout of 5G pilot program in the City of Sacramento by writing to:
1 Darrell Steinberg Mayor, City of Sacramento
2 Maria MacGunigal Chief Information Officer, City of Sacramento
3 Head of Planning Department, City of Sacramento
4 Joyce Terhaar is Executive editor and Senior Vice President, Sacramento Bee
Thank you so much for your care and involvement! We need to band together and not let our homes, city, state and country be bullied into relinquishing our constitutional rights to health and safety and well being!
Google’s omni-directional raidar-guided self-driving car – thickening the electro-magnetic radiation soup in which we live.
EMF Safety Network and Ecological Options Network sent this letter in opposition to SB-649 author Sen. Hueso.
Here is a sample letter for Sen. McGuire:
Dear Senator Sen. McGuire,
I respectfully oppose SB-649. This proposal unnecessarily and unconstitutionally strips local authority over public property and shuts out public input and local discretion by eliminating consideration of the aesthetic and environmental impacts of “small cells.”
The attached pictures show the true size of the base of these so-called ‘small’ cells. Placed every four to twelve houses and in rural areas, even more frequently, these antennas represent a huge intrusion into our common space.
It is unthinkable that telecommunication corporations would be exempt from municipal considerations. This would be a huge concession of public rights to corporate desires held by no other industry.
SB 649 intends to minimize costs for the telecom corporations, yet it could dramatically lower real estate value for those homes on whose premises the antennas are forced. This in turn, would lower the tax base for the locality and negatively effect overall municipal and county income.
The increased extensive use of transmitting radios for this 5G rollout can also affect overall costs from climate chaos. Calculations of the additional electrical power needed to run such huge numbers of additional transmitting radios show that at least 1.6 trillion more pounds of CO2 would be added each year nationally.
The telecommunication industry, like the tobacco industry, still denies the scientifically established effects of their product. That the Dept. of Defense uses the same frequency as 5G as a foundation for their ‘Active Denial’ crowd control weapon belies that denial. The Active Denial weapon directs a beam of 5G – like millimeter waves that cause unbearably intense burning pain.
5G millimeter wave technology is scientifically shown to affect humans, penetrating the skin and affecting all biological systems.
There is no substantial evidence to support SB 649’s determination that the deployment fits the CEQA exemption. There is substantial evidence in support of a fair argument that the project would indeed create environmental impacts.
SB 649 goes too far by requiring local governments to approve “small cells” in all land use zones, including residential zones, through a ministerial permit, thereby shutting the public out of decisions that could affect the aesthetics of their community and the quality of their environment.
Please oppose SB 649.
Thank you!
[your name]
Thanks for taking action!
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Help Your City Ban 5G & Block Harmful Telecom Coup Attempt! – UPDATED
The new 5G technology will impact us all in a very serious way. FCC Chair, Tom Wheeler, wants virtually everything to be connected via 5G which will launch a whole slew of new frequencies, and no testing whatsoever. Please read the email below and consider writing a letter to the FCC and our elected reps. Our voice must be heard over that of industry.
Thank you,
The MSMA Team
As you may have already heard, July 14th is the day set for the FCC to vote on Tom Wheeler’s vision of 5G in the USA. He wants to be “first out the gate.” Wheeler says, “Turning innovators loose is far preferable to expecting committees and regulators to define the future.” A full highlighted PDF version of Wheeler’s talk from last week is attached.
I am certain a cursory reading of the talk will inspire you to write a strong letter to the FCC and others.
Calls and letters to the FCC, Representatives, Senators and relevant committees are needed by the thousands!!!!! …by July 13th. Please share this info widely and post wherever possible. Most important to contact is the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology since they will vote July 12 on their recommendation to the FCC who will vote July 14.
Below is a package prepared mostly by www.electricalpollution.com which offers guidance in letter writing and contacting representatives.
If the Commission approves my proposal next month, the United States will be the first country in the world to open up high-band spectrum for 5G networks and applications. And that’s damn important because it means U.S. companies will be first out of the gate.
We will be repeating the proven formula that made the United States the world leader in 4G. It’s a simple formula: Lead the world in spectrum availability, encourage and protect innovation- driving competition, and stay out of the way of technological development.
Unlike some countries, we do not believe we should spend the next couple of years studying what 5G should be, how it should operate, and how to allocate spectrum, based on those assumptions. Like the examples I gave earlier, the future has a way of inventing itself. Turning innovators loose is far preferable to expecting committees and regulators to define the future. We won’t wait for the standards to be first developed in the sometimes arduous standards-setting process or in a government-led activity. Instead, we will make ample spectrum available and then rely on a private sector-led process for producing technical standards best suited for those frequencies and use cases.
Help Stop 5G Wireless – a dangerous radiation intensive technology!
The FCC is voting on whether to move forward with 5G, an extremely dangerous technology. Read Chairman Wheelers comments about the Spectrum Frontiers Proceeding (https://www.fcc.gov/document/remarks-chairman-wheeler-future-wireless). This would put 5G transmitters on power and light poles throughout communities across the United States with the aim of creating enough saturation of very high frequency microwave radiation that fiber optic level connectivity is available wirelessly everywhere.
We will need as many people as possible from the U.S. and around the world, including experts, to contact the FCC by July 13, 2016. They vote on the proposal on July 14, 2016.
Please take a moment to contact the FCC Commissioners BEFORE their vote on July 14 in opposition to the rollout of 5G. A template letter is below, please take a moment personalize it briefly with your experience to give it greater impact.
Tom Wheeler, Chairman Tom.Wheeler@fcc.gov
Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov
Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov
Ajit Pai, Commissioner Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
Michael O’Rielly, Commissioner Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
Please send a copy of your letter also to your U.S. Representative and Senators and the relevant committees (listed below). It was Congress that decided to give sole responsibility for wireless promotion and safety to the FCC, an industry dominated agency. It is essential that they hear from you. Only they can give authority for health back to the EPA, which has tried in the past to protect the public. Congress defunded EPA and removed its authority to protect the public from wireless radiation to stop it (https://www.stopglobalwifi.org/documents/PressReleaseDec2015.pdf).
Call the White House
tel: 202-456-1111
Ask President Obama to halt the rollout of 5G in light of the safety hazards. President Obama can also be emailed using the form at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Congressional Committees
Ask for oversight hearings on dangers of societal saturation with radiation from wireless technology. Most important to contact is the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology since they will vote July 12 on their recommendation to the FCC who will vote July 14.
House Energy and Commerce Committee – (202) 225-2927
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: (202) 225-5074
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – (202)-224-5375 https://www.help.senate.gov/ links to contact the two ranking members on webpage
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation – Majority: 202-224-1251, Minority: 202-224-0411 U.S.
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources – (202) 224-4971
Spectrum Frontiers Proceeding is being represented as an unqualified good, but it is not. It will do great harm to human health and the environment.
Please vote “no” to the Spectrum Frontiers Proceeding. There has been no NEPA review of the environmental and human health impacts of moving forward with 5G. The FCC has put the cart before the horse in promulgating rules for 5G without first studying the safety of 5G for humans and the environment. There is consensus within the scientific community that the existing FCC limits for wireless radiation do not protect the population from biological effects (https://www.emfscientist.org) The National Toxicology Program recently release results showing that radiofrequency radiation (RFR) can indeed both break DNA and cause cancer (https://www.saferemr.com/2016/05/national-toxicology-progam-finds-cell.html and https://microwavenews.com/news-center/ntp-nyt).
Don’t vote to unleash a dangerous environmental pollutant on your friends, family, and, indeed, the whole country. Vote to protect your family, friends, and the country – vote “no” on Spectrum Frontiers. Be on the right side of history.
Sincerely,
Your name
Thanks for taking the time to do this…it feels a bit like a lost cause – But..as the Good Book tells us, We are not obligated to complete the task, but neither may we desist from trying. (Ethics of our Fathers)
STOP the FCC Vote to Release New High Band Spectrum (above 24Ghz) for the 5G network. [ Fact Sheet pdf ] It means more harmful frequency, more small cell transmitters and END TO ALL LANDLINES. Demand that the EPA not the FCC establish and maintain the safety standards for non-thermal biological effects for wireless radiation before rolling our more wireless spectrum.
Vote, Announcement, & Roll Out- Thursday, July 14th, 10:30am EST-Room TW-C305, FCC 445 12th St SW, Washington DC (See Attached)
Demand These Congress Members protect us from harm. According to Martin Pall PhD, we know 4G is harmful and reports from other countries in Europe and South Korea say it is making more people sick because it pulses more. We know from the NTP study that harm is not about power and heating but more about frequency, wave length and pulsation. 5G heats less but it pulses more. None of these transmitters have been tested for non-thermal effects which the NTP study proved causes cancer and is neurotoxic.
Please call, email and ideally visit the US Senate and House Committees with Oversight over the FCC. We have researched it for you. Their names, pictures, email addresses, phone numbers, chiefs of staff, and the staff member with responsibility for the FCC are listed. Try to hit Chief of Staff as well as legislative staff. Chiefs of Staff definitely have more power and have the ear of the Senator or House member. This is the “Committee Members – U.S. Senate Committee On Commerce, Science, & Transportation Senate list. Please call the FCC commissioners as well-see attached.
Start emailing, calling and visiting now. I am in DC with others working to educate lawmakers. If you are visiting offices, I suggest you go separately or in pairs and represent different groups. You can say info is circulating on the internet and many many groups are outraged.
If you are Electromagnetically Intolerant tell them your symptoms; this way we may identify staff members who are also ES who can help us.
Kevin Mottus
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Please help members of “We are the Evidence,” “Parents for Safe Technology,” and “Americans for Safe Technology” get an appointment to meet with key staff from your Senators and Representative.
Can you please:
1. Call your state senators and representative and tell them you want them to meet with members of “We are the Evidence,” “Parents for Safe Technology,” and “Americans for Safe Technology” on behalf of you, a constituent. They are available for meetings on July 11, 12, and 13.
Be sure to express the importance of having oversight hearings related to the negligence of the FCC in promoting wireless technology, and even rolling out an additional radiation intensive technology (5G), after the National Toxicology Program released findings that radiation from wireless technology causes cancer and breaks DNA.
The consensus of the scientists studying the health effects of radiation from wireless technology is that the FCC limits are outdated and inadequate or, in the words of the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), “the electromagnetic radiation standards used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continue to be based on thermal heating, a criterion now nearly 30 years out of date and inapplicable today.”
2. If they offer to schedule an appointment as you speak, take a tentative appointment and immediately email Kate at kkheel@verizon.net so that she can work it into the schedule or immediately call the office to reschedule.
Please include the following information in your email:
your name
your state
all contact information for you
contact info and full names of elected officials you contacted
confirm that you called and outcome of call
Copy of letter to FCC, if you sent one – details at (https://www.electricalpollution.com/Stop5G.html)
If they say they want you to email to schedule an appointment, please do that ccing Kate at kkheel@verizon.net so they can complete the scheduling with her. You should include your complete contact information so they know you are a constituent.
Sample email:
Dear *****,
Please schedule an appointment on July 11, 12, or 13 with Kate Kheel to meet with representatives from “We are the Evidence” and “Parents for Safe Technology” and “Americans for Safe Technology.”
It is very important to me as a constituent that you learn more about the urgent need for Congress to hold oversight hearings related to the FCC’s negligence in promoting wireless technology in the face of mounting evidence (including the National Toxicology Program finding that wireless technology is carcinogenic and causes DNA breakage) and scientific consensus that wireless technology causes dangerous biological effects (www.EMFscientist.org).
Thank you in advance for scheduling an appointment to learn more,
Protecting my health and that of others by using a hardwired computer in a low RF environment.
For more information, see www.electricalpollution.com
…Snapshots of the Resurgent Movement for a Nuclear Free California
Report to Funders
Many, many thanks to those who have supported us through the past year! With great appreciation to our funders, supporters and partner activist organizations, we celebrate our past year’s accomplishments and share some snapshots from our past year’s activities and previews of 2016. Our three main issue areas are Electro-magnetic Health Protection, Denuclearization and Election Protection – the latter, because you can’t have democratic choice on public policy issues if the voting is rigged.
Our work in 2015 began in January with helping to organize, along with Mothers for Peace and many other organizations, the NoNukesCA/West Coast conference to shut down California’s last nuke standing,’ Diablo Canyon. We also provided media support and video documentation for the conference.
"Shutdown Diablo!" Author, activist Harvey Wasserman concludes the NoNukesCA Conference with a rousing affirmation. Wasserman has been a major force in the NoNukes movement from the beginning, and continues his participation in, and reporting on, the NoNukesCA movement at NukeFree.org..
Our work in 2015 concluded with helping to organize and document on video a West Coast speaking tour for Maggie & Arnie Gundersen, founding CEO and Chief Nuclear Engineer, respectively, of Fairewinds Energy Education (Fairewinds.org). We’re pleased and honored to be collaborating with this impactful organization and the wise and wonderful couple that run it.
MB facilitates Day 2 of the NoNukesCA conference. Jim in a promotion for EON’s new documentary SHUTDOWN. A four-way conversation during Maggie and Arnie Gundersen’s Fairewinds 2015 speaking tour of Northern California that EON co-organized with John Bertucci of Fukushima Response and Project Censored at Sonoma State University; Cynthia Papermaster and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; and Bing Gong, Pt. Reyes Books & Cultural Potholes Institute in Pt. Reyes. There were also Fairewinds presentations at Lori Grace’s Sunrise Center in San Rafael, as well as at CalPoly and with the Mothers for Peace in San Luis Obispo. Mary Beth and Jim’s conversation with Maggie and Arnie in Pt. Reyes is now on-line on Vimeo and YouTube as a preview of the EON video series based on Fairewinds tour forthcoming in 2016.
In this “Tell All” segment of the series, Maggie and Arnie discuss their lives as former nuclear energy insiders, the lies they were told and led to believe, and the subsequent impact of speaking truth to power as whistleblowers. Now, as consultants and educators about the risk of atomic power and its radiation leaks, Maggie and Arnie talk about their role in uncovering the operating risks at San Onofre & Diablo.
Author & eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and EON’s Jim Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan speak in segments of the upcoming EON video series based on the 2015 Fairewinds California speaking tour.
During the year, we also worked to organize and document presentations by leading scientists Ken Buesseler and Tim Mousseau on their investigations of the oceanic and biological impacts of still on-going Fukushima contamination with co-sponsors Bing Gong, Fukushima Response, Pt. Reyes Books and Cultural Potholes Institute. MB’s presentation helped place the scientists’ research in perspective.
We continued our coverage of the dire radioactive waste issues at San Onofre documented by Donna Gilmore of SanOnofreSafety.org. Donna’s invaluable research has revealed key vulnerabilities and gaping holes in current technology for containing the lethal high level waste that will last thousands of years. Donna’s challenges, backed by hard NRC data, holds industry and government decision-makers accountable. Ms. Gilmore is educating, not only activists, but largely unaware industry insiders and government officials both in CA and nationally. Responsibly managing the millions of pounds of highly corrosive deadly long-lasting radioactive waste is crucial to our species and all other species survival, but current Southern Califonia Edison plans are to bury it in thin stainless steel canisters with a cement overpack, 100 ft. from the rising ocean and inches above the water table on the beach in San Clemente surrounded by 8 million people. The technology does not exist to determine depth of cracks in the thin canisters, nor for repairing the canisters, nor for transporting cracked canisters, if there were a safe place to move them.
SanOnofreSafety.org founder Donna Gilmore educates the CCC Commissioners on the risks of SoCalEdison radwaste storage plans at San Onofre A die-in at LIvermore. A teleconference on the TPP.
Revelations of nuclear plans to spend trillions of dollars for on-going nuclear weapons development were announced by Marylia Kelly at the protest at Livermore Lab on Hiroshima’s 70th. anniversary, organized by Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley CAREs. EON’s coverage of this important event was cablecast multiple times. We also note the grassroots push for independent monitoring of radioactivity levels in air, food and water led by Fukushima Response and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN). Kim Roberson organized FFAN members (EON, Beyond Nuclear and Citizens for Health) for a teleconference to block the TPP, which would further permit radioactivity in food with no labeling.
Lft.: SoCal Edison's Tom Palmisano presents his company's San Onofre radwaste storage plan to CA Coastal Commissioners. Ctr.: Mark Lombard, head of the radwaste program at the NRC admits to the CCC that the possibility to monitor and replace failing radwaste canisters like those being used at San Onofre is "not a now thing." Rt.: "We want to know how you vote!" - Ray Lutz of CitizenOversight.org demands a voice vote from California Coastal Commissioners about to approve SoCalEdison's seriously flawed San Onofre radioactive waste storage plan - thin stainless steel canisters, inches above the water table in a tsunami zone, on the beach of a rising ocean. What could possibly go wrong?
We have continued to document the unfolding scandal at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and followed closely the work of San Diego attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson as they press to expose corruption and insist on justice.
Lft.: Attorney Mike Aguirre walks us through his assembled timeline documenting CPUC corruption relating to San Onofre. Ctr.: Former CPUC President Michael Peevey (L) is under investigation. Critics say current President Michael Picker (R) is stonewalling corruption inquiries. Former CPUC President Loretta Lynch says it is now a ‘rogue agency.’ Rt.: Attorney Mia Severson explains how the costs of SoCal Edison’s mismanagement at San Onofre have been passed on to ratepayers.
In 2015 we have continued our collaboration with Dr. Devra Davis and the Environmental Health Trust documenting her and her colleagues’ work on the human health effects of electro magnetic pollution caused by wifi and cell phone technologies. Our team traveled up and down the state covering meetings of the California Coastal Commission, and grassroots conferences such as the one organized by Myla Reson and Ann Doneen of the Malibu Democratic Club.
Lft.: Dr. Devra Davis at the 2015 Bio-Electric Magnetic Society (BEMS) Conference. Ctr.: Coastal Commission debates radwaste storage plans at San Onofre (R) Speakers Paul Frey, Donna Gilmore, Linda Seeley and Harvey Wasserman talk about the risks of Diablo Canyon at a community meeting in Malibu.
In the process we added 54 video reports to our popular YouTube Channel, which now has more than 700 posts, over 4,200 subscribers, and millions of views. Much of this exclusive footage will be used in our documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection, which is now in post-production for release in 2016.
As the year came to a close…
Ca. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (with his eye on a gubernatorial run) is the Chair of the California Coastal Commission. He has called for an environmental review of Diablo's continued operation. “I don’t think that PG&E, in its quiet moments, would disagree that this may not have been the ideal site for a plant,” Newsom said at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. “I just don’t see that this plant is going to survive beyond 2024, 2025,” Newsom said. “I just don’t see that. Now, I absolutely may be wrong, but that’s my punditry. And there is a compelling argument as to why it shouldn’t.”
Also in the works is a potential documentary co-production [funding permitting] based on our years of work with Suzanne Patzer, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman of FreePress.org and the Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism on the history of election theft going into the lead-up to the 2016 election and what can be done to prevent it.
Our work is made possible in large part by contributions from people like you. We encourage you to consider a monthly contribution or by including EON in your 2016 giving. Thanks for whatever you can afford – we really appreciate it! EON is a 501 ( c ) 3, tax-exempt organization. Please visit our ‘something-for-every-budget’ Donate Page – https://eon3.net/donate.html
In Solidarity, The EON Team
Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle, Morgan Peterson
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Is the CPUC beyond reform? Three state legislators don’t think so.
by James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan
[cross-posted on PlanetarianPerspectives.net]
Demonstrators at the CPUC call for a shutdown of PG&E's Diablo Canyon, California's last operating nuclear reactors. EON photo
The Iron Law of PUC Corruption
In 2006 Werner Troesken published a paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research publication ‘Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America’s Economic History’ entitled Regime Change and Corruption. A History of Public Utility Regulation. In it Troesken looked at the history of public utilities commissions and wondered why, despite both public and private attempts at reform, utility regulation seems always to lapse into corruption. Here’s how he describes his hypotheses and research findings in what might be called Troesken’s Iron Law of PUC Corruption:
“First, corruption is endemic to public utility industries; corruption exists, in some form, across all regulatory and ownership regimes. Second, regime change in utility industries does not eliminate corruption; it only alters the type of corruption observed. Third, for any type of governance regime (e.g., state regulation or municipal ownership) corruption grows increasingly severe over time and, at some point, becomes politically untenable.” pg. 260
He concludes,
“Based on the historical evidence presented above it appears that corruption, and the necessity to eliminate corruption when it gets too costly, accounts for the efficacy of regime change. In this context, the direction of regime change—from public to private, or private to public—is of second-order importance. What matters is some radical reshuffling of the institutional matrix to disrupt the underlying corrupt relationships. Unfortunately, this disruption is only temporary, and gradually new forms of corruption emerge and must again be broken down by institutional change.” Pg. 278
Cartoon thanks to emfsafetynetwork.org and narellecartoons.com
PUCs’ Dominant Corruption Gene – President Picker’s Perplex
California’s Public Utilities Commission could serve as the poster child for Troesken’s Iron Law. The CPUC was established in 1911 under progressive era Governor Hiram Johnson as a result of a popular initiative and constitutional amendment stimulated by widespread public outrage about Robber Railroad Barrons’ corruption of California’s politics and economy.
Over the years the Commission has grown into a complex, hydra-headed bureaucracy, which – despite its mind-boggling system of functionaries, rules and procedures – is nevertheless vulnerable to manipulation by both internal and external actors.
Now, a century later, the agency intended to protect the public against corporate greed and incompetence has become, as former CPUC President Loretta Lynch puts it, “a rogue agency.” Almost daily revelations of endemic corruption continue to suggest a system approaching unreformability.
Newly appointed President Michael Picker – long a Gov. Brown insider – has promised ‘transparency,’ while, at the same time, the agency is spending up to $5.2 million for the services of the high end law firm Sheppard Mullin to respond to the multiple criminal investigations now underway. The first task of Sheppard Mullin was to advise on which documents to release, withhold or redact in the face of public record requests in order to protect the CPUC from too much transparency.
‘Regime Change’ for the CPUC? AB 825
So, following Troesken’s Iron Law, what would constitute a “radical reshuffling of the institutional matrix to disrupt the underlying corrupt relationships,” even if the effects of “this disruption is only temporary?”
On February 6, 2015 California Assemblymember Anthony Rendon, whose 63rd District covers nine SoCal cities and a swath of northern Long Beach, introduced Assembly Bill 825 which aims at answer that question. As amended in the Assembly on April 20, 2015, AB 825 would amend and revise portions of the state’s Public Utilities Code, relating to the Public Utilities Commission. California State Senators Jerry Hill and Mark Leno have also weighed in with amendment suggestions. Sen. Leno is sponsoring SB 215, a parallel CPUC reform bill in the State Senate.
Assemblymember Rendon’s office is soliciting suggestions about the proposed bill and will hold a meeting in Sacramento on Thursday, May 7 to listen to input. [Background info PDF’s provided by his office are here and here. ] Address your suggestions to Alf W. Brandt, Legislative Director, Assemblymember Anthony Rendon State Capitol – Room 5136, Sacramento, California 95814 e-mail: Alf.Brandt@asm.ca.gov
EON will submit the following recommendations and continue to report on this important issue. As ‘official intervenors’ on behalf of the public interest in CPUC proceedings over the last several years, we have a few preliminary issue suggestions we hope a final bill combining AB 825 and SB 215 – as eventually passed – will address:
We need rigorous enforcement of CPUC sections 451 & 453 (b) that have been egregiously ignored in the case of the forced installation of so-called ‘smart’ meters.
Particularly:
451 ” Every public utility shall furnish and maintain such adequate, efficient, just, and reasonable service, instrumentalities, equipment, and facilities … as are necessary to promote the safety, health, comfort, and convenience of its patrons, employees, and the public.” [emphasis added]
and
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.” [emphasis added]
In the case of “smart” meters, thousands of ratepayers vociferously objected to the forced installation of the electronic RF-emitting meters. Hundreds reported serious health affects and injuries.
Those suffering from exposure to banks of multiple meters in apartments, condominiums and business offices are at serious risk. Fires, interference with other wireless devices, bill over-charging and privacy impacts from the microwave-emitting meter’s mega-data-gathering to be sold to third parties are all impacts that were reported to a non-responsive CPUC in addition to the adverse health effects. Despite people objecting in many ways, the CPUC ignored their pleas and instituted an upfront and monthly fee for those demanding to retain the old mechanical meter. This is paying to NOT have this dangerous meter that Attorney General reports from Illinois and other states have determined to have no advantage to ratepayers.
In a stinging letter to the state Department of Public Utilities Commission, for instance, a lawyer from Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office pointed to large-scale tests in Illinois and elsewhere in which the meters failed to justify their costs. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed suit in the state appeals court, stating that there is no net economic benefit to consumers resulting from the use of smart meters and that there is unlikely to be any future benefit. The court of appeals agreed. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan agreed with Schuette, stating: “The utilities have shown no evidence of billions of dollars in benefits to consumers from these new meters, but they have shown they know how to profit. “
Unimpeded Media Access in accordance with California’s 2004 Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act for both corporate AND independent media organizations and citizen journalists.
Ex parte Rule Violations must be prosecuted and prevented by a change in the Commission’s management culture. The institutionalized attitude toward ‘public advocates as enemies’ and utility officials as friends must be changed.
Authentic Public Access to Commissioners – Members of the public and advocacy group representatives should be able to meet with Commissioners and their aides with appropriate ex parte reporting, not just utility executives. Commissioners and staff must officially receive and register communications from the public.
Complaint Processing – Public complaints should be officially received and published online as well as concrete actions taken to address the problems.
Transparency in Renewable Energy Accounting – The CPUC should mandate utilities to track solar roof top electricity generation in order to be able to fully utilize it via substations. The amount of renewable energy thus generated should be transparently reported. Currently, it is not tracked.
Transparency in Utilities’ Energy Efficiency Program Reporting – CPUC awarded large bonuses to utilities for unsubstantiated Energy Efficiency Program gains. CPUC currently gives ratepayer-based Energy Efficiency funds to utilities and disallows them to be used by cities and other entities who have no conflict of interest in saving energy and whose EE programs have genuinely produced results in the past.
Public Comments – Members of the public and advocacy group representatives must be allowed to speak in the ‘open comment’ period before business meetings without unfair limits being imposed. Spokespeople should not be prohibited from speaking on a given issue if they have already addressed it in previous meetings.
Administrative Law Judges must be randomly chosen, not ‘shopped’ for their friendliness to the interests of certain parties in Commission proceedings. Attorney Larry Bragman, formerly Mayor of Fairfax, CA and current Marin County Water Board Member, who has familiarity with past and current CPUC functioning, puts it this way:
“The CPUC’s administrative law judges should be assigned cases randomly (as in Federal and State Court) and not by the commissioners. That would reduce the influence of individual commission members to cherry pick judges and influence hearings.
“Once assigned a case, the law should require that ALJ’s adhere to the same judicial code of conduct and ethics that Superior Court judges follow. No more back door meetings with litigants or commissioners.”
Commissioners Should be Elected, rather than appointed. Elections should be open to candidates from all stakeholder sectors, not just corporate and political circles and utility-friendly NGOs, but from Citizen Groups as well.
Legal Challenge of Decisions – proceeding decisions must be open to direct and timely challenge in Superior Court, rather than in the appellate courts.
Online User Friendliness – the Commission website should be updated and streamlined to support non-expert access. Complex forms should be simplified. The video archive should be upgraded for greater video quality and accessibility.
Overly complex and burdensome technical and procedural barriers to public and intervenor input should be removed.
Intervenor Compensation Requests should be evaluated and ruled upon by a randomly-chosen Administrative Law Judge other than the ALJ of the proceeding in which the intervenor participated. Compensation payments should not be punitively manipulated or delayed in relation to the identity or policy position of the intervenor .
We observed an example of this when a dying intervenor’s compensation was deliberately withheld by the CPUC, though it was known, according to a former CPUC Commissioner who spoke with someone in the business office, that the money was needed for the intervenor’s cancer treatment. The check arrived after her death.
We support California legislators Rendon, Hill and Leno in their efforts at CPUC ‘regime change,’ while remembering Troesken’s Iron Law, “What matters is some radical reshuffling of the institutional matrix to disrupt the underlying corrupt relationships. Unfortunately, this disruption is only temporary, and gradually new forms of corruption emerge and must again be broken down by institutional change.”
Nineteenth century abolitionist Wendell Phillips put it this way in a speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
==============
James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan co-direct EON – The Ecological Options Network
===========
If you like EON’s work, you can support it, whatever your budget level, here.
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Editor’s Note:
This chart above and text below are from attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson,
who’re representing low income ratepayers against Southern CA Edison’s
plan to demand $5 Billion from their customers for
their stupid mistakes with San Onofre nuclear power plant.
The CPUC colluded with Southern California Edison (SCE) in this. This case has much of the same
pattern as with the CPUC and ‘smart’ meters, as well as with PG&E and Diablo
Canyon, the remaining nuclear power plant in CA – our own potential Fukushima.
Mary Beth Brangan
What Is A Cover-Up
A cover-up is an attempt to conceal evidence of wrongdoing. In a passive cover-up information is simply not provided; in an active cover-up deception is used.
The expression is usually applied to people in positions of authority who abuse their power to deflect guilt of wrongdoing. Those who initiate a cover up (or their allies) may be responsible for a crime.
While the terms are often used interchangeably, cover-up involves withholding incriminatory evidence, while whitewash involves releasing misleading evidence. https://self.gutenberg.org/articles/cover-up
Are Those Listed Above Engaged in a $5.2 Million cover-up of an unlawful scheme to Make Edison customers to pay $5B for closed San Onofre plant? Are they getting help from the Governor’s office? Who is Nancy McFadden?
Who is Nancy McFadden?
Nancy McFadden was the Senior Vice President and Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of PG&E Corporation, and before that was the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for PG&E Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. She received $1 million from PG&E before joining Brown’s staff. She now serves as the Executive Secretary to California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. [ see: Indispensable insider looks out for Gov. Jerry Brown’s interests – “Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chief aide was Susan Kennedy, so influential that many viewed her as the de facto governor. Nobody says that about McFadden, a lawyer who is more broker than coach for a governor with decades of policy experience.” ]
Nancy McFadden is the longest-serving loyalist in Brown's inner circle. Photo:Robert Durell LA Times
On February 12, 2015, summoned by gold-embossed invitations, members of the ruling energy elite gathered in the glittering splendor of the Julia Morgan Ballroom – one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s posh venues – to honor one of their own and show their solidarity with him in his current travails.
That would be Michael Peevey (left), who recently stepped down from the Presidency of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) after a 12-year reign amid a barrage of investigations and revelations about backroom dealing between him, his colleagues and staff, and the utility officials they were supposed to be regulating.
At the time of the gala in the grandeur of the JMB, Peevey’s home had been recently raided by state and Federal law enforcement agents intent on seizing evidence for their ongoing investigations. A trove of 65,000 e-mails just released by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) detailing the interactions of utility and Commission personnel was already revealing alarming, plot-thickening evidence.
At issue were so-called ex parte communications between utility executives and CPUC officials conducted in private out of public view and process. Such interactions are supposed to be reported in writing to the CPUC proceeding participants, as “ex-parte” meetings. Apparently, under Peevey, there were a lot that were not.
The ornate Julia Morgan Ballroom was the venue for $250-a-plate Peevey gala with proceeds going to the UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Business.
Peevey Ex Parte Party Poopers
So, not everyone at the entrance to the JMB that night was there to celebrate Mr. Peevey’s legacy. Slightly outnumbering the team of security men were protesters holding a news conference at the door as the celebrants entered. (Full disclosure, EON both documented and participated. Scroll down for video reports and media links).
MC-ing the conference, covered by media from radio, print and TV, was Ray Lutz of the San Diego-based CitizensOversight.org, who had set up a podium and sound system and articulated his many concerns with the way Peevey’s PUC did business.
EON photo
“CPUC now a rogue agency” – Former CPUC President Joins Protestors, Speaks Out
Most prominent among the speakers was former CPUC President, Loretta Lynch, Peevey’s predecessor, who minced no words in denouncing the corporate capture of the CPUC under Peevey and labeling the evening’s gala as “one big ex parte meeting” behind closed doors.
For a former Commission President to show up and speak out publicly on behalf of rate-payers at the event underlined the seriousness of the current CPUC situation and the urgent need for focused public attention and action.
EON photo
Citing the progressive purposes that led almost a century ago to the founding of the CPUC by then Gov. Hiram Johnson in response to public outrage at the corporate crimes of the time, former CPUC President Lynch called for today’s Californians to rise up and demand substantive reforms in the now-compromised and discredited Commission, whose mandate is protection of the public good, not corporate profits. See her recent Chronicle Op-Ed piece : Guidelines for the post-Peevey era of the CPUC
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Who Pays for the ‘Smart Meter’ Fiasco?
Mary Beth Brangan of EON, an official intervenor at the CPUC on behalf of the public’s interests in the ‘smart meter’ forced deployment controversy, is part of a coalition of citizen groups which oppose that deployment as a threat to human health and safety, privacy, grid security and democratic choice. Over 57 cities, counties and one tribe joined in various forms of opposition to the forced installation of ‘smart’ meters. That strong coalition was infiltrated, spied on and labeled ‘insurgents’ by PG&E management.
The CPUC, now revealed by the released emails to have been part of that behind-the-scenes blocking of action to remedy the extremely real ratepayer concerns and injuries, ordered a charade of an investigation, and PG&E was ultimately forced to pay a small fine to the state’s general fund. The CPUC hid its complicity at the time but that is now being thoroughly revealed through the released emails.
EON joins many others in saying the patterns of practice revealed by the e-mail record and the cloud of corruption surrounding Peevey’s departure from the Commission throw the legitimacy and legality of all the proceedings and decisions made under his administration into doubt.
EON has filed for a rehearing of the recent CPUC ‘smart’ meter opt-out decision which forces customers to pay an extortionate fee not to have electro-toxic, privacy-violating wireless transmitters attached to their residences. Furthermore we believe the current decision is unjust and illegal in its attempts to strip municipal and county elected officials of their constitutionally mandated power and responsibilities to protect the safety and privacy of their constituents. It actually asserts that utilities’ rights trump locally elected officials in regard to municipal franchise agreements that are used to regulate utilities’ activities in local jurisdictions.
At the press conference, Brangan pointed out the parallel methods used by the CPUC in both the San Onofre proceeding to determine who pays for So Cal Edison’s costly mistakes and mismanagement and the ‘smart’ meter proceeding that determined who should bear the cost of opting out of harmful and dangerous ‘smart’ meters. She emphasized the need for true regulator protection for ratepayers against the powerful utilities.
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Who Pays for San Onofre?
San Diego attorney Mike Aguirre and his law partner Maria Severson added their pressure and litigation to that of the city of San Bruno’s that led to the revealing release of the 65,000 e-mails. Aguirre and Severson recently published a report detailing their findings of “Malfeasance and Institutional Corruption at the California Public Utilities Commission.” [ pdf here ] ( Scroll down for our interviews with Severson and Aguirre )
Aguirre called for an investigation into why the CPUC under Peevey ruled that ratepayers must pay $3.5 billion for electricity they will never get from Southern California Edison’s San Onofre nuclear power plant, which has been permanently shut down because of faulty and illegal decisions made by the utility’s management.
However, even though San Onofte nuclear reactors are shut down, the plant must continue to store thousands of metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste, currently stored in thin steel containers that the NRC says may crack from the marine environment. [ For more information on this vital issue – how to manage hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste that is deadly for longer than human civilization has yet existed, now kept on-site at over 100 nuclear plants around the country with no ecologically safe facilities to go to – visit Donna Gilmore’s excellent website: SanOnofreSafety.org ]
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Who Will Defend Diablo Whistleblowers?
Steve Zeltzer of the Labor Project called for protection of whistleblowing workers. He pointed out that both PG&E and Southern California Edison fired and retaliated against workers who tried to address serious safety issues. If workers concerned about what they see endangering the public can’t speak out and get results, we all suffer. The real results are the deaths, injuries and devastation in San Bruno, as well as the San Onofre radiation leaks and thousands of injuries and many fires from ‘smart’ meters.
He demanded that not only CPUC officials but colluding PG&E and So Cal Edison executives be indicted and prosecuted for their criminal acts that resulted in deaths and injuries and the highest electricity rates in the country.
Video Reports and Media Links are below:
Protesting Peevey’s (ex parte) Party
On February 12, 2015, dozens of the closest elite friends of out-going CPUC President Michael Peevey’s paid $250 per plate to gather at the posh Julia Morgan Ballroom in downtown San Francisco in celebration of Mr. Peevey’s ‘lifetime accomplishments.’
Greeting them at the door were protestors – including Loretta Lynch, his predecessor as Commission President. They came not to celebrate, but to condemn and expose the culture of corruption Peevey’s 12 year reign has left behind.
Speakers include former California Public Utilities Commission President Loretta Lynch; Ray Lutz of CitizenOversight.org; EON’s Mary Beth Brangan; Steve Zeltzer of the Labor Video Project; and San Diego attorney Mike Aguirre.
Viewer Embed Code:
From CBS Channel 5: San Francisco Dinner Honoring Ex-CPUC Exec Accused Of Shady Dealings Met With Protests
From NBC – Jul 31, 2013 Flown, Wined and Dined on Lobbyists’ Dimes?
CPUC president accepted $165,000 in free travel from nonprofits and special interests in past six years
EON Skype Interview Busting CPUC Backroom Deals – Maria Severson
In this Skype interview, San Diego attorney Maria Severson talks about the implications of revelations from PG&E’s trove of 65,000 e-mail exchanges between its executives and California Public Utilities Commission officials, including former CPUC President Peevey.
(We regret that the audio and video quality in this interview conducted via Skype is not up to our usual standards. But we believe the content is important to make public.)
EON Video Who Pays for San Onofre? – Mike Aguirre
Attorney Mike Aguirre and his law partner Maria Severson are at the center of the emerging revelations about CPUC officials’ too cozy relationships with the officials of the utilities they are supposed to regulate. In this May 2014 interview Aguirre explains the key issues in this now-expanding case. He tells how his attempts to question then CPUC President Peevey provoked an outburst that may have marked the beginning of Peevey’s current troubles.
Related Media Links
UT-San Diego Flawed San Onofre project steamed on
$680 million replacement generators were not subject to formal cost study
By Jeff McDonald9:03 a.m.Feb. 14, 2015Updated4:18 p.m.
…It was a bombshell disclosure by any measure: the top utility regulator in California sketching out a multibillion-dollar deal with the senior Edison lawyer in secret at a luxury hotel in Warsaw, Poland…. Pickett, whose house is walking distance from Peevey’s home in the La Canada Flintridge section of Los Angeles, jotted down the potential points of agreement, which Peevey kept.
UT-San Diego Senator blasts Cal over Peevey party
The school will receive proceeds from celebration of outgoing utilities chief
By Jeff McDonald4:22 p.m.Feb. 12, 2015
Dan Walters Daily: Michael Peevey tribute is improper
Published on Feb 10, 2015
Despite revelations of questionable professional conduct, California’s political elite will gather this week to honor former Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, Dan says. (February 11, 2015)
SFBG This Week The secret life of Michael Peevey
California’s top energy regulator rolls with power company executives behind the scenes
05.24.11 – 3:25 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
TURN The Secret Life of Michael Peevey
TURN objects to fox guarding the hen house. CPUC President Peevey is too cozy with the utility companies he regulates.
Teams of researchers are indexing, archiving and examining the recently released trove of 120,000+ PG&E/CPUC e-mail exchanges. Attorneys are pressing for release of more e-mail exchanges with Southern California Edison (SCE). Watch this space for reporting on more revelations as they emerge.
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