Boneheaded Boondoggle Bogs Down
Despite its ‘smartiness’ logo, the wireless ‘AMI’ metering rollout for electricity, gas and water utilities bids fair to go down as one of the stupidest corporate/government mis-steps since nuclear power, the repeal of Glass–Steagall and a casino economy based on the trading of toxic ‘derivatives.’ Like ‘truthiness’ and ‘hedginess,’ ‘smartiness’ just doesn’t cut it in the Real World.
Irate ratepayers around the country and around the world are waking up and pushing back, whilst the industry pundit/morons and regulatory revolving-door stooges scratch their heads in consternation and bemused bewilderment. How do these guys manage to hold their jobs? (Just a rhetorical question.)
[ Here’s what we filed today as ‘parties’ in Phase 2 of the CPUC Opt-Out Proceeding in support of a Motion to Stay filed by attorneys for the County of Marin, Fairfax and the Alliance for Human and Environment Health. PDF here. ]
This edition surveys some – but not all – of burgeoning recent smeter developments. Stay tuned for more on this issue. Plus our upcoming reports from last week’s Nuclear Safety Summit in Washington. DC.
First, here’s our coverage of yesterday’s ratepayer protest against ‘smart’ meter opt out fees in front of stockholders walking into PG&E’s stockholders’ annual meeting in San Francisco. Scroll down for more…
Angry ratepayers demonstrated at the entrance to a PG&E stockholders meeting May 14, 2012 in San Francisco. Signs, chants and speakers laid out their objections to the wireless ‘smart meter’ rollout and the fees proposed for opting out. Activists delivered over 3000 petitions expressing outrage at the fees.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — PG&E’s shareholders meeting took place in San Francisco Monday. Protestors were there too, armed with petitions opposed to the utility’s practice of charging customers to opt out of its SmartMeter program.
They came, they shouted and they delivered nearly 3,000 signatures. But they left wondering if their actions will change anything…. Read more.
“Regulators who don’t approve smart stuff are by elimination reducing themselves to certificators of dumb stuff. When nuclear optimism peaked, backers said that its power would be “too cheap to meter.” The bill for the smart grid is turning out to be too confusing to meter, but like in the nuclear heyday, the momentum is irresistible.”
As PG&E shareholders and employees walked up to the firm’s headquarters at 77 Beale St. in San Francisco to attend the annual shareholders meeting yesterday, they were confronted by a raucous ratepayer revolt, with chants of “Our Health is NOT for Sale” and “We say NO FEE Charge the Utility.” Many entering were visibly uncomfortable. Voge Smith, a Novato resident whose petition demanding a halt to opt out fees has generated nearly 3000 signatures- spoke of widespread health problems from smart meters, and was allowed inside the building with ABC 7 On Your Side reporters, who aired this report.
Thank you to all who attended the protest and joined the growing call for an end to extortionate and punitive opt out fees (and an end to the smart grid!). If you couldn’t attend the protest but still want to contribute, please consider a donation to help us keep fighting smart meters.
Media links:
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Worries about health effects, privacy and cost are fueling growing opposition to wireless, digital “smart meters” that utilities around the country are installing at homes and businesses and touting as key energy conservation and grid reliability tools.
Vermont appears poised to take an unusually aggressive stance. While several states have allowed utilities to charge a fee to customers who want to opt out of smart meters, Vermont’s governor is expected soon to sign legislation that would allow customers to say no without paying anything extra, at least until more studies are completed on the real costs of not deploying the meters.
“They’re the ones who came up with this,” Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington and a leading supporter of the free opt-out, said in an interview. “The utilities didn’t really care what the ratepayers thought. So since they’re the ones who are trying to impose the new system, we think they’re the ones who should absorb the costs.”
I DON’T know about you, but I’ve always found the debate about what our mobile devices are doing to us — to our behaviors, our manners, our minds — at least as interesting as reports about what we’re doing with these devices.
Marzia Zafar of the CPUC Urged PG&E to Crack Down on Customers Who Refuse Installation
Yesterday, we learned from the Chronicle that PG&E plans to disconnect residents who refuse to pay their extortionate opt out fees. No consultation with the public about our energy system, no hearings to get to the bottom of why tens of thousands of Californians have suffered (in some cases devastating) medical conditions when the smart meter was installed. No investigation into widespread reports of smart meter fires. No delay in the fees pending resolution of unresolved procedural issues. Just an arrogant ultimatum from one of the largest investor owned utilities in the country.
Are you ready for the smart electricity revolution?
On July 20, 2006, California’s Public Utilities Commission approved a proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG) to begin phasing out conventional electricity meters (those big gray boxes on the side of your house, with the dials that spin around) and replace them with “smart” meters.
Relaying data on electricity usage wirelessly and in real time, the devices should in theory help utilities such as PG&E charge consumers more when they use electricity at times of greatest demand. This would, for example, encourage users to dial back the A/C on hot summer days.
Conversely, consumers would get a break on their bills for smart electricity usage. You could pay lower rates for doing your dishes and drying your laundry overnight, and for charging your plug-in electric car at nonpeak hours as well.
It’s all part of a $29 billion, nationwide plan to make electricity usage smarter, by helping to build the “smart grid.”
And it’s failing because of greed. Specifically, the greed of electric utility companies such as PG&E.
If your state was installing a new technology that would impact virtually everyone, you might assume your state was acting based on the most complete and current science available to protect everyone’s health.
If your state was Vermont and it was intent on installing wireless technology in every home and business, you’d need to know that your state is acting based on very limited science, most of it more than 25 years out of date, with little concern for anyone’s health.
Making this a matter of growing public concern is the state-sanctioned installation of “SmartMeters” (trade name) that expose people to radiation that has unknown consequences, but is suspected of causing a variety of physical ailments, from sleep disturbance and headaches to brain damage and cancer.
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Photo by Diablo Canyon Large numbers of salp started clogging the cooling water intake structure at Diablo Canyon on Monday night. In this photo, salps float among the kelp at the power plant. These salps are about 2 to 3 inches long. Read more here: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/2012/04/24/2041453/diablo-canyon-nuclear-reactor.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy
[ Editors’ note – Some of the EON Team will be in DC for the next week covering the Sierra Club No Nukes Activist Strategy Summit May 4, 2012 – May 7, 2012. Program PDF here. This will be the last blog post for a few days. Watch this space for a full report and videos ASAP. ]
CPUC Just Can’t Loose Those Irritatin’ Opt-Out Blues
“Pursuant to Rule 11.1 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, County of Marin, Town of Fairfax, California, and The Alliance For Human And Environmental Health (“Joint Movants”) request an immediate Commission ruling directing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”) to temporarily suspend further deployments of SmartMeters in the jurisdictions identified herein until resolution of the community opt-out issues designated for Phase 2 of this proceeding.”
That was the opening paragraph of a ‘motion to stay’ filed May 1, 2012 with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Supported by strong statements from Marin County Board of Supervisors President Steve Kinsey and Fairfax Town Council Member Larry Bragman, the motion argues that, because of the confusion surrounding the so-called “smart meter” opt-out “deadline,” and the unresolved issues of community-wide opt-out options and costs justifications, PG&E customers would suffer irreparable harm if deployment of the wireless meters continues before these issues are resolved.
The initial ‘joint movants’ are hoping that other jurisdictions, parties and groups will sign on or file supportive motions to cover the whole state.
The CPUC’s own Division of Ratepayer Advocates points out in a recent study – Case Study of Smart Meter System Deployment Report – that the purported energy and cost savings being claimed for the ‘smart meter’ deployment are unlikely to materialize based on data collected so-far.
An EMF ALEC on Steroids?
Strong and growing public opposition to ‘smart meter’ deployment in California and, indeed, around the country and around the world has the ‘smart grid’ advocates and technocrats scratching their heads. Apparently there are many parts of the word ‘NO’ these suits just can’t understand.
Two organizations – Global Smart Grid Federation and the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) – have been formed to help ‘educate’ reluctant consumers and overcome such ‘barriers’ to the plan as democratic choice. A recent Federation report was prepared for the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) by SmartGrid Canada.
The Federation has active chapters in many countries including Australia, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Korea and the US. Their job is to help utilities avoid being “overly technocratic” in their approach.
According to ISGAN, “Smart grid represents a novel convergence of several different groups of technologies—traditional power sector transmission and distribution technologies, information and communication technologies, advanced power electronics and control devices, sensing and monitoring equipment, and cybersecurity systems—as well as the operational practices that integrate these technologies into unified systems. ISGAN’s purpose is to help countries accelerate progress to their national-level smart grid goals and to facilitate their adoption of more ambitious targets.” Read more here. And here.
Launching of the International Smart Grid Action Network at the Clean Energy Ministerial in 2010 in Washington D.C.
An internationally coordinated campaign to influence national policies on energy and communications? You don’t have to be a ‘conspiracy theorist’ to imagine a cabal of besuited technocrats aiming to control the global ‘smart grid’ from a cave in Davos. That’s what the ‘motion to stay’ is all about folks. Rolling back the Global Bonehead Grid roll-out.
Scroll down for links to posts on this and other opt-out developments.
Elsewhere in the Nuclear News
Nuclear ‘Salp-Absorption’ at Diablo
Nukefree activists were having a brief experience of ‘salp esteem’ after the jellyfish-like sea creatures clogged Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor’s plumbing forcing a shutdown for several days. The reactor has now been restarted.
The San Onofre nuke remains shut down because of serious faults in its steam generator design. It was the scene of well-attended demonstrations this past weekend. Video reports from Ace Hoffman below with Dan Hirsch, Larry Agran and NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko are below. Also, Mothers for Peace demands the NRC include results of post-fukushima earthquake study before considering diablo canyon license renewal application. Global Research TV reports on ‘Nuclear “Security” and Nuclear Hypocrisy,’ and ‘Radiation, Coverups and the Legacy of Fukushima.’ Linda Gunther debunks the Washington Post Fukushima reporting. Arnie Gundersen jousts with SoCal Edison.
That and more follows. Scroll on down…
Opt-Out News
PG&E’s Opt Out Fees Mired in Dispute and Procedural Flaws
Josh Hart – StopSmartMeters.org
Happy May Day everyone. Get away from your computer and get out in
the streets- it’s a beautiful day, at least in Northern California!
Revolutionary spirit (and tear gas) is in the air. Apart from a
historical day to celebrate and defend workers rights, May 1st also
happens to be the “deadline” for signing up for PG&E’s opt out
program. Yet it’s not really a deadline. You can opt in or out at
any time according to PG&E. And lacking justification for charging
the fees or forcing a smart meter, our domineering monopoly utility is
left with empty threats, legal ambiguities, and cheap intimidation
tactics to force their unwanted meters.
Let’s take a look at where this issue stands as of today: Read more
The county of Marin and the town of Fairfax are asking the California Public Utilities Commission to temporarily halt further installation of SmartMeters in their communities.
In a motion filed Monday with the commission, the two Marin County jurisdictions argue that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. should not install any more of the digital meters until the commission rules on whether entire communities can opt out en masse and whether the amount customers are being charged to opt out is fair. Read more. SmartMeter opt-out deadline is May 1
David R. Baker
Sunday, April 29, 2012
In or out?
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has asked customers who want to opt out of the utility’s controversial SmartMeter program to notify the company by Tuesday. That’s three months to the day since California regulators gave PG&E customers the choice of rejecting the wireless electricity and gas meters, which critics consider a threat to their privacy and health.
May 1 isn’t a firm deadline. Read more.[/caption]
Sunday, April 29, 2012
San Francisco has been a hotbed of opposition to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s SmartMeters.
So why haven’t the city’s wireless water meters caused much of a stir?
Since 2010, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which provides water service to city residents, has been quietly upgrading its meters with technology similar to that used by PG&E. The new water meters have a transmitter attached that relays their data automatically, over a wireless network – much like PG&E’s.
To date, the city has installed 81,000 of the new meters – replacing almost half of the water meters in San Francisco. About 95 people have objected, said Steve Ritchie, the commission’s assistant general manager for water. Of those, the commission has been able to convince 18 that the meters are safe and accurate.
The rest still have their older meters. The commission may create an opt-out plan for them but hasn’t done so yet.
“We’ve basically put them in a parking lot,” Ritchie said. “We want to talk to each one individually, understand their issues.” Read more.
Winning consumer support is the most difficult challenge to building the smart grid, according to “Global Smart Grid Federation report,” a free document the organization publicized last week. National governments are best positioned to educate consumers about grid modernization and can be effective mediators between consumers and utilities, it said.
Power pricing – and thus the strength of motivation – varies widely among member nations, from 8.3¢/KWH in Korea to 23.3¢/KWH in Ireland, the report said. Modernization projects “in their infancy now exist” in most member nations, it said.
“Not properly and adequately communicating the anticipated benefits of a project to stakeholders was cited as a reason for the unpopularity of the Boulder, Colo, Smart Grid City project,” the report said. Some utilities “risk being overly technocratic” in their approaches to a project, undervaluing the consumer, it said. That approach led to “poor consumer responses to smart metering trials in Australia and Europe,” it said.
Individual chapters were devoted to modernization efforts in several member nations or regions, including Australia, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Korea and the US. They summarized the incentives, regulatory environment and challenges facing each nation or region.
In Australia, smart meters “have become a controversial political issue,” though AMI rollouts are under way, the report said.
Popular reaction to Canada’s efforts has been “mixed,” the report said, with groups protesting smart meters based on privacy and health concerns.
In the US, “for utilities that articulated the benefits of smart metering, the consumer reaction has been positive. In other areas there has been major consumer pushback.” Read more.
“We won’t force smart meters to go on to any house or business at this time.” KIUC board to consider smart meter opt-out plan
Vanessa Van Voorhis – The Garden Island The Garden Island | Posted: Tuesday, April 24,
Protestors of the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative’s initiative to install smart meters take their message to Kapa‘a on Kuhio Highway fronting the Courtyard by Marriott at Coconut Beach where the KIUC Board met Tuesday afternoon to answer questions from the utility co-op’s members.
KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board is considering an opt-out program for members who do not want smart meters installed on their property, but meanwhile will defer installation upon request, KIUC CEO David Bissell said Tuesday.
“The board is saying we’ll allow the members a choice,” Bissell said at a board meeting held at Courtyard by Marriott at Coconut Beach in Kapa‘a. “We won’t force smart meters to go on to any house or business at this time.”
The board sometimes meets away from its office in Lihu‘e as part of its community outreach strategy. Read more.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.—The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant has restarted its Unit 2 reactor six days after the California central coast plant was shut down because jellyfish-like creatures clogged seawater intake screens.
Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Tom Cuddy says the Unit 2 reactor was safely returned to full power on Monday.
Southerly winds began blowing salps into the plant’s cooling water intake cove early last week. Salps are small barrel-shaped plankton tunicates similar to jellyfish.
Unit 2 was shut down on April 26 because salps clogged rolling screens at the San Luis Obispo County plant’s beach intake structure.
The Unit 1 reactor had been shut down earlier in April for scheduled refueling.
The twin-reactor PG&E plant generates enough power for more than 3 million homes in Central and Northern California.
As the so-called “international community” once again meets to mouth political platitudes about stopping nuclear proliferation, many are now pointing to the numerous pieces of evidence demonstrating that, contrary to their official position, these very governments are invested in the proliferation of nuclear materials and nuclear weapons around the globe.
This is the Global Research backgrounder from GRTV.ca
One year on from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan’s northeast, details continue to emerge about how the crisis was much worse than the government and TEPCO originally let on.
Joining us to discuss the legacy of Fukushima is Helen Caldicott, a physician, author and radio host who has spoken out for decades about the deadly effects of nuclear radiation.
On April 23, 2012, the editorial board of the Washington Post proclaimed that the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan was “non-catastrophic.” The writers eagerly promoted nuclear power while omitting inconvenient deal-breakers such as cost, waste, safety, health risks and human rights. The board taunted Germany and Japan – and the anti-nuclear movement – for looking to renewables but misrepresented Germany’s successes. They showed a shocking disregard for the suffering in Japan due to a very real catastrophe that is by no means over. And they utterly ignored those who have already paid the price for the nuclear fuel chain, like indigenous uranium miners, and its newest victims, the children of Japan whose future has been stolen.
The following rebuttal can also be found, with more detail, on theBeyond Nuclear website.
Washington Post (WP): Nuclear “is the only proven source of low-emissions ‘baseload’ power.”
FACT: Renewable technologies can and do deliver baseload power. In many regions, peak wind and solar production match up well with peak electricity demand. Numerous case studies, including by theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, predict that 80%-100% of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century.
WP: Germany and Japan are “giving up all of that guaranteed, low-carbon electricity generation in an anti-nuclear frenzy.”
FACT: Nuclear energy is “guaranteed” only as long as the electrical grid is reliable and when natural disaster struck in Japan, nuclear energy wasn’t so “guaranteed” but instead worsened the crisis. In Germany, renewable energy is revitalizing home-grown industries like steel and more people there work in the renewable sector (370,000 and growing) than in the nuclear (30,000) and coal industries (20,000) combined. No “frenzy” necessary. Read more.
NEWS RELEASE
May 1, 2012
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
P.O. Box 3608
San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
mothersforpeace.org
For Immediate Release Contacts: Jane Swanson
April 30, 2012 Janeslo@me.com
(805) 595-2605
cell (805) 440-1359
June Cochran
gradofcal@yahoo.com
(805) 773-2847
MOTHERS FOR PEACE DEMANDS NRC INCLUDE RESULTS OF POST-FUKUSHIMA EARTHQUAKE STUDY BEFORE CONSIDERING DIABLO CANYON LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION
On April 27, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (SLOMFP) took action to ensure that the NRC’s consideration of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) application for renewal of the Diablo Canyon operating license will include post-Fukushima accident risks and measures for protecting against them. SLOMFP asserts that PG&E’s environmental report for renewal of the reactor license should discuss the results of a new seismic study to be conducted in the next three years. MFP also argued that the environmental report must present a range of alternatives for meeting new post-Fukushima safety requirements.
Radioactive iodine found by Dartmouth researchers in the local New Hampshire environment is a direct consequence of a nuclear reactor’s explosion and meltdown half a world away, says Joshua Landis, a research associate in the Department of Earth Sciences.
The failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, was the largest nuclear disaster since 1986 at Chernobyl. “We live on a really small planet and this demonstrates that what happens in Japan has the potential to affect us,” says Landis. Read more.
A nuclear consultant for the environmental group Friends of the Earth says defective new steam generators at the shut-down San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente cannot be fixed and need to be replaced.
“They need to order new ones and go back to Mitsubishi and force them to come up with new steam generators and eat the cost,” Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education said during a visit to the Surfrider Foundation in San Clemente this week. Read more.
WHY OUR WORLD IS ELECTROPOLLUTED
How Industry Suppresses – and Government Denies – the Overwhelming Evidence of Harm
by Helke Ferrie
(Ed note: This is the first of a 2-part series on Electropollution. The second part, to run in April Vitality, will focus on solutions.) If something is invented by and for the military, it is certain to be effective and lethal. And industrial capitalists invariably view such military gizmos as having great profit potential – particularly if they’re re-packaged and promoted as beneficial to the public. Hence, the science behind atom bombs dropped on Japan in World War II led soon after to cancer radiation therapy and mammography – two of the most lucrative practices in modern medicine. Similarly, biological warfare weapons such as DDT and chemotherapy proved to be enormously lucrative in their peace-time applications – their deadly properties being undiminished despite re-packaging. Originally, the military objected to the declassification of both, but industry interests prevailed. Read more.
*Sonic.net Inc, CEO Dane Jasper writes, on his blog:
“Wireless is magic. You point two antennas at each other over a span of miles, and broadband comes out the other end. Most of the time.
I hate wireless.
Today, we sold our wireless network.” Read more.
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Or…just:
“Nuclear accidents lead to global consequences. They are not a problem of just one country, they affect the life of entire regions.”
Those are the words of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in his speech commemorating today’s anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred in his country 26 years ago. The fight to contain the still-radiating ruined reactor still goes on. A recent study published by the New York Academy of Sciences drew howls from nuclear proponents when it presented massive data showing that nearly one million people around the world have died so far from exposure to radiation released from Chernobyl.
Fukushima Fallout
President Yanukovych might have had Fukushima in mind when he talked about ‘global consequences.’ Radiation from it has already been detected across the northern hemisphere and its emissions are on-going with three melted-down reactors, not just one, as at Chernobyl. Nevertheless, a recent report suggests that U.S. radioactive fallout monitoring may have been turned over in a no-bid contract to a company with ties to the nuclear lobby. The EPA’s Inspector General finds “Weaknesses in EPA’s Management of the Radiation Network System Demand Attention.” [ check recent milk contamination levels here. ]
Now experts like Bob Alvarez and legislators like Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden are warning that the damaged fuel storage pools at Fukushima could be just one earthquake away from an atomic conflagration that would be 85 times worse than Chernobyl. They are calling for international action.
Opting Out of the Cyber Panopticon
Meanwhile, that boneheaded corporate boondogle – a wireless ‘smart’ energy grid mediated by wireless ‘mesh networks’ and wireless ‘smart meters’ – is coming under fire from both the cyber-security and telecom sectors.
People like the DOE’s Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman and former CIA head James Woolsey are calling the concept of a wireless ‘smart’ energy grid ‘really stupid.’ The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) agrees.
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has officially recommended that the CPUC halt smart meter installation immediately to protect the public’s health. (PDF here.)
Telecom giant AT&T has applied to be a party in California’s ‘smart grid’ proceeding, claiming that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), not the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), should have ultimate jurisdiction over the ‘smart grid’ rollout, apparently because it represents an unlicensed broadcast network that could potentially compete with phone, cable and satellite networks in supplying internet and ‘content distribution’ services. (PDF here.)
As the May 1st ‘deadline’ approaches for PG&E customers to opt-out of the utility’s ‘smart meter’ program, violations of procedures by both CPUC and PG&E in relation to protests filed by several parties, looks like it could throw that deadline into doubt.
In what many hope may serve as a precedent, the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) seems to have ruled that Vermonters can opt-out free of charge for at least a year.
Big Brother and the ‘Militarization of Cyberspace’
Back in the 1700’s British philosopher Jeremy Bentham came up with an architecture for social control he described as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.” He called it the ‘panopticon,’ It was a ring of glass-fronted cells surrounding a central watchtower. The idea is that inmates must assume they are being watched at all times and thus conform in their behavior. Great design for a prison – and there are a bunch around.
Bentham’s architectural design is now being realized in cyberspace. As CISPA, the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (HR 3523) moves toward a vote in the Senate (it passed the House today) backed by the likes of Google and Facebook, internet activists are warning that it would make legal a global corporate/government spying operation that, while it is probably already in operation, is currently both unconstitutional and illegal.
Against this background the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has launched an investigation of PG&E’s spying on smart meter resistance groups. [Download PDF]
These stories and more in this edition. Scroll on down.
The EON Team
CISPA could lead to attacks on our right to speak freely online. SaveTheInternet.org
Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych has warned of the dangers of nuclear energy as his country marks the 26th anniversary of the world’s worst atomic accident.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a giant steel arch that will cover the reactor site.
“The Chernobyl disaster underscored that mankind must be extra careful in using nuclear technologies. Nuclear accidents lead to global consequences. They are not a problem of just one country, they affect the life of entire regions,” the Ukrainian head of state said.
When the arch is completed in 2015, it will be big enough to house New York’s Statue of Liberty.
Then the dangerous job of dismantling the reactor and cleaning up vast amounts of radioactive waste can begin. Read more.
…The stark reality, if TEPCO’s plan is realized, is that nearly all of the spent fuel at the Dai-Ichi containing some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain indefinitely in vulnerable pools….
…Given these circumstances, a key goal for the stabilization of the Fukushima-Daichi site is to place all of its spent reactor fuel into dry, hardened storage casks. This will require about 244 additional casks at a cost of about $1 million per cask. To accomplish this goal, an international effort is required – something that Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has called for. As we have learned, despite the enormous destruction from the earthquake and tsunami at the Dai-Ichi Site, the nine dry casks and their contents were unscathed. This is an important lesson we should not ignore. Read more.
From Committee to Bridge the Gap EPA Inspector General Criticizes EPA Radiation Monitoring Network
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General confirms CBG Criticisms of EPA Radiation Monitoring Network Large Fraction Broken During Fukushima Crisis
click for PDF of the EPA IG report: here
…Broken RadNet monitors and late filter changes impaired this critical infrastructure asset. On March 11, 2011, at the time of the Japan nuclear incident, 25 of the 124 installed RadNet monitors, or 20 percent, were out of service for an average of 130 days. The service contractor completed repairs for all monitors by April 8, 2011. In addition, 6 of the 12 RadNet monitors we sampled had gone over 8 weeks without a filter change, and 2 of those for over 300 days. Because EPA managed RadNet with lower than required priority, parts shortages and insufficient contract oversight contributed to extensive delays in fixing broken monitors. In addition, broken RadNet monitors and relaxed quality controls contributed to the filters not being changed timely. Out-of-service monitors and unchanged filters may reduce the quality and availability of critical data needed to assess radioactive threats to public health and the environment.
EPA remains behind schedule for installing the RadNet monitors and did not fully resolve contracting issues identified in the OIG’s January 2009 report. Until EPA improves contractor oversight, the Agency’s ability to use RadNet data to protect human health and the environment, and meet requirements established in the National Response Framework for Nuclear Radiological Incidents, is potentially impaired.
…RadNet itself had many problems, stations didn’t work, some were not calibrated before the disaster. Even more disturbing is that the EPA does not even handle their own radiation monitoring network. The important function falls to a former Bush administration appointee running a business out of a rundown storefront in New Mexico. Under a $238,000 no bid contract Environmental Dimensions supposedly manages, maintains and operates RadNet, the only tool the public has to see if we are being subjected to nuclear fallout. The blogger that broke this story states that Environmental Dimensions has tripled their revenue in recent years. The company cites a different address as their mailing address. This shows up as a tiny house in Albuquerque. EDI was also part of a 12 million dollar contract in 2010 along with a couple of other contractors. The contract provides environmental & remediation services to the US Corps of Engineers. EDI claims to have been in business since 1990 but owner, Ms. Bradshaw worked for the DoD in 2006.
What little system the public has for radiation notification through the EPA has been shuffled off to a no bid contract with spurious origins and the system experienced widespread problems when it was needed most. That system was mostly turned off just over a month after the disaster. The NRC, the agency tasked with protecting the public from nuclear disasters decided to hand everything over to the nuclear industry’s lobbyists. Read more.
RadNet – the EPA’s front-line, radiological detection network is severely flawed and suffers from maintenance and reliability issues.
The lack of consistent data and the number of units offline (a techie term for broken) at the time they were most needed shows that the EPA was not prepared for this emergency. Read more.
Washington, DC, U.S.A. — (METERING.COM) — January 31, 2012 – A number of the smart grid projects being funded through the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 do not have adequate cybersecurity requirements, according to the Department of Energy’s inspector general.
In a new report on an audit of the program, the inspector general found that of the five cybersecurity plans reviewed, three were “incomplete, and did not always sufficiently describe security controls and how they were implemented.” Further a Department review had found that “36 of the 99 cybersecurity approaches submitted as part of the grant applications lacked one or more required elements.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: … I wanted to ask you about a recent report by the Brookings Institute, not exactly a liberal or progressive think tank. But they did a paper called “Recording Everything: Digital Stories as an Enabler of Authoritarian Governments.” And some of the quotes here are astonishing. They say, quote, “Plummeting digital storage costs will soon make it possible for authoritarian regimes to not only monitor known dissidents, but to also store the complete set of digital data associated with everyone within their borders.”
They go on to say, “When all of the telephone calls in an entire country can be captured and provided to voice recognition software programmed to extract key phrases, and when video footage from public spaces can be correlated, in real time, to the conversations, text messages and social media traffic associated with the people occupying those spaces, the arsenal of responses available to a regime facing dissent will expand. … Pervasive monitoring will provide what amounts to a time machine allowing authoritarian governments to perform retrospective surveillance.”
This is where the United States is heading, where other authoritarian regimes, much more authoritarian regimes than ours, are heading around the world. And yet, the level of public opposition, especially among some young people, to this continued invasion of their privacy is not that—I mean, it’s strong, it’s growing, but it’s not where it should be.
…JACOB APPELBAUM: … And there’s a website. IXmaps is the name of it, and it’s a Canadian site. And they actually show when your internet traffic goes through potential NSA interception points, so you can actually test your internet connection. And that’s the Internet Exchange Maps project.
Within the next few years an important threshold will be crossed: For the first time ever, it will become technologically and financially feasible for authoritarian governments to record nearly everything that is said or done within their borders—every phone conversation, electronic message, social media interaction, the movements of nearly every person and vehicle, and video from every street corner. Governments with a history of using all of the tools at their disposal to track and monitor their citizens will undoubtedly make full use of this capability once it becomes available.
The federal government and big companies want limitless new powers to spy on you.
And they plan to get them via legislation called CISPA — the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (HR 3523).
CISPA would give Big Brother new powers to read, watch and listen to everything we do on the Internet. The folks behind CISPA claim that national security interests make this surveillance necessary, but the bill’s language is so vague and overreaching that it opens the door for rampant abuse of our online rights:
• CISPA would allow companies and the government to bypass privacy protections and spy on your email traffic, comb through your text messages, filter your online content and even block access to popular websites.
• CISPA would permit companies to give the government your Facebook data, Twitter history and cellphone contacts. It would also allow the government to search your email using the vaguest of justifications — and without any real legal oversight.
• CISPA contains sweeping language that could be used as a blunt weapon to silence whistleblower websites like WikiLeaks and the news organizations that publish their revelations.
• CISPA would create an environment in which we refrain from speaking freely online for fear that the National Security Agency — the same agency that has conducted “warrantless wiretapping” online for years — could come knocking. Read more.
A cyber security bill moving swiftly through Congress would give government intelligence agencies broad powers to work with private companies to share information about Internet users. While some critics are beginning to organize online against the legislation, defense contractors, many already working with the National Security Agency on related data-mining projects, are lobbying to press forward. Like many bad policy ideas, entrenched government contractors seem to be using taxpayer money to lobby for even more power and profit.
The proposal, H.R.3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, introduced by Congressmen Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), provides companies and the government “free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for ‘cybersecurity purposes.’” Though the bill has been compared to SOPA given its potential to smother free speech on the Internet, the ill-fated copyright legislation that inspired an intense lobbying battle earlier this year, much of the tech community has has joined with copyright interests to support CISPA.
A full list of companies and trade groups supporting the legislation, from Facebook to AT&T, can be found here.
https://intelligence.house.gov/bill/cyber-intelligence-sharing-and-protection-act-2011
From DemandProgress.org
We pushed them to the brink, but House Republicans rammed through CISPA this afternoon, ahead of schedule. Let’s make sure it dies in the Senate: click here.
CISPA would give the government and corporations vast new powers to track and share data about Americans’ Internet use.
But our hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of phone calls have had a real impact:
* Amendments were adopted that made CISPA (marginally) better.
* Earlier this month CISPA was supposed to sail through, but we helped foment opposition, and the vote was far closer than anybody could have imagined even a couple of weeks ago.
* Most Democrats held firm in opposition, and more than two dozen libertarian-leaning Republicans defied their leadership and voted no.
* Most importantly, President Obama has threatened to veto CISPA.
The Senate will consider cyber security legislation in the coming weeks. Let’s turn up the heat right away: Tell the Senate to reject CISPA and any and all legislation that doesn’t respect privacy and civil liberties. Add your name to tell the Senate to reject cyber security legislation that doesn’t respect privacy.
Recent filings with the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) will mean that Vermonters will be able to “opt out” of smart meter installations for the rest of 2012, and possibly longer.
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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
Or…just:
Resistance is Fertile - Brian Narelle - NarelleCreative.net
Skirmishes Won. Battle Continues.
Our colleagues in Southern California are cheering today at the news that ‘smart meter’ opt-out plans similar to the one authorized by the CPUC for PG&E’s service area will now apply in the Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric service areas as well. Opt-out programs still only apply to individual residences, not businesses. Still include illegitimate, extortionate fees. Still don’t include community-wide opt-out. But, hey. You have to celebrate even partial victories. These are significant wins on the road to a victory for informed democratic choice, and a Wise – as opposed to a so-called ‘Smart’ – Grid.
In this edition, we summarize FYI what we know at the moment about the opt-out state-of-play. Click here and/or scroll down for a MayDay Opt-Out Poster you can print, post and pass on. We link to Sandi Maurer of EMFSafety Network and Josh Hart of StopSmartMeters.org who weigh in with valuable advice on strategy. Other links fill out the picture, reporting on So Cal developments. Finally, an industry blogger gives his idea of how to stem the opt-out tsunami he fears is sweeping the country.
What About ‘smart’ meter Opting Out Options?
by Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle
Wondering what to do about your certified letter from PG&E about whether or not to choose a ‘smart’ meter or pay to keep an analog meter by May 1?
You have a few choices. There is no one size fits all solution. I’ll give you some broad outlines here, but you can get more details elsewhere on this blog or StopSmartMeters.org, and EMFSafetyNetwork.org.
Of course we recommend you do NOT accept a ‘smart’ meter under any circumstances because of severe health risks, serious privacy invasion, endangering national security, fire safety risk, electronic interference, accuracy problems and higher bills. And be sure to talk to your neighbors about their choice of meters too because their radiating ‘smart’ meters can effect you adversely.
Here’s the Current ‘Fee Structure’
Currently the fees to opt out for regular customers are $75 up front and $10/mo.
For CARES customers, it’s $10 initially and $5 per month.
CARE income level limit for a 1-2 person household is $31,800.
Why Pay for Opting Out When We Haven’t Opted In As Law Requires?
The Illusory ‘Mandate’
The key on this issue is the concept of ‘time-variant pricing,’ or ‘time-of-use-metering.’ That means that utilities, according to this scheme, will be able to charge variable rates depending on (a) what time the electricity is used and (b) how much, at what price, electricity is available on the grid at that time. This is a hairy, insider-baseball topic. Here’s the essence of what we argued in our Objection to the Proposed Opt-Out Ruling that pre-dated the current decision (link to full PDF). Please pardon the brief lapse into legalese ‘proceeding lingo.’
“1.a) The proposed decision presents a false deadline for mandating choice of meters.
The proposed decision by Commissioner Peevey is premature. By law, customers do not have to decide until Jan. 2014 whether or not to opt out of time variant pricing. Customers should be allowed to have analog meters at least until they are required by law to choose whether they will use time variant pricing on Jan. 1, 2014.
For example from page 21 of the PD:
To ensure that the electric non- communicating meter is able to take advantage of smart grid benefits in the future, it must be capable of capturing interval energy consumption data. While this capability is not needed at this time, it must be available by January 1, 2014. …
The Proposed Decision does not accurately represent the relevant code;
Pursuant to Pub. Util. Code § 745(b)(2) an electrical corporation may employ
mandatory or default time-variant pricing… for residential
customers after January 1, 2014….
The relevant parts of the code read:
Public Utilties Code section 745. (d) On and after January 1, 2014, the commission shall only approve an electrical corporation’s use of default time-variant pricing in a manner consistent with the other provisions of this
part, if all of the following conditions have been met:
(1) Residential customers have the option to not receive service
pursuant to time-variant pricing and incur no additional charges as a
result of the exercise of that option…. [emphasis added)
The law states time-variant cannot be mandatory or by default, but must be offered to residential customers as an option.
SB 695, signed by the Governor on October 11, 2009 and PUC Code 745 (b)(2) and (3) state that the Commission shall not require or permit an electrical corporation to employ mandatory or default time-variant pricing without bill protection for residential customers prior to January 1, 2014 or employ mandatory or default real-time pricing, without bill protection for residential customers prior to January 1, 2020.
Both Public Utility Code and California state law state that:
– The individual residential customer’s decision as to whether or not to opt for ‘time-of-use’ metering is meant to be totally voluntary on the basis of informed consent, and, in any case, does not need to be made until Jan. 2014
– There is no legal requirement that such a customer have a meter capable of capturing time variant data already in place by that date since the residential customer may at that time opt out.
– Unnecessary costs to PG&E will occur from rushing to install unwanted meters that will ultimately be rejected.
– Customers should not be forced to pay for PG&E’s mistake.”
So, Some Options to Consider
You can choose to: 1) opt out, keep your analog meter, (or have your ‘smart’ meter removed) and pay the extortionate fees (which compared to the risks and the increased billing for most ‘smart’ meters, is probably less in the long run) We believe that to be forced to pay to avoid being harmed in the many possible ways by ‘smart’ meters sure looks like a protection racket. So you should mark ‘paid under protest’ on your check and keep a record. For legal protection, be on the alert not to sign away any of your rights in any meter agreement with PG&E.
2) You can say you refuse to opt out because you never opted in and protest the fees if you still have your analog meter. Lock up your analog meter, don’t allow a PG&E installer onto your property and send them a certified letter saying you refuse to pay their still legally contested fees. You may need to stock up on candles for this option though, because PG&E may either force a ‘smart’ meter on you while you’re not home or cut off your power. If thousands of people do this, however, it will be far more difficult for PG&E to get away with.
3) You can opt out by calling PG&E, but wait to pay your $75 until you see what happens at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC.) PG&E gives you 3 months to pay the up front $75 charge and there are ongoing legal challenges to these fees at the CPUC. EON has been representing ratepayers interests in Phase I, arguing for no cost opt out and to allow people to keep their analog meters rather than what PG&E first wanted which was a ‘smart’ meter with the radio turned off. But we presented evidence showing that wouldn’t solve the many problems caused by digital meters. We also are insisting on Community wide opt out.
(You can read PDFs our arguments to the CPUC here and here if you want all the nitty gritty details.)
Next Phase: Community-Wide Opt-Outs
We’re now getting ready for the next phase. Phase Two of the CPUC proceeding has been ordered to happen, but hasn’t been scheduled yet. In Phase Two Community Wide opt out and the true costs of opt outs are going to be thrashed out.
4) You can support our efforts to defend our right to a Community-Wide opt out and to pay no fees. Marin County as well as Lake County and Santa Cruz County, among 50 other California cities and counties, have legally objected to forced installation of ‘smart’ meters.
Marin, Lake and Santa Cruz actually wrote ordinances and support community wide opt out.
As of now, only residences are being included in the opt out option. This problem of excluding businesses (think health clinics, day care centers, etc.), the radiating data collectors on utility poles and situations where folks and apartments have banks of multiple meters, as well as the problem with being zapped by neighbors’ meters, all make community wide refusal of this harmful wireless mesh network technology necessary.
Pushback Going Viral
The push back against this poorly thought out plan is national and international. Recently another leading cyber security expert, David Chalk, has forcefully spoken out about the incredible security dangers of a wireless grid. He joins other highly informed sources including former CIA director James Woolsey, and the US Inspector General Gregory Friedman, who clearly state the hazards a wireless electricity grid poses to national security. They point out that it’s too hackable and the electricity grid is a known target of cyber warfare. David Chalk says we’d be within three years of a total breakdown of the power grid.
(see full source articles on our blog here. )
“Smart Grid” Plans Endanger Our National Fleet of Aging Nuclear Plants
One of our main worries about all this is that a more vulnerable power grid makes nuclear meltdowns at our already rickety nuclear reactors situated on earthquake faults and in tsunami zones, much more likely since they depend on external power sources to keep the cores and fuel pools cooled. It only takes a few hours with no electricity to cause a meltdown. Back up emergency diesel power generators at nuclear reactors are notoriously unreliable, and, even if they do work, have a limited amount of fuel stored.
There’s even more: the FBI has recently issued an alert re ‘smart’ meters because of potential hacking. A large utility in Puerto Rico lost hundreds of millions of dollars because a criminal racket provided ‘reprogramming’ services to residences and businesses to lower their bills. [ See: FBI: Smart Meter Hacks Likely to Spread
From Krebs on Security ]
So now, many more people, even in the electrical industry, are finally realizing the problems with the green- washed and over-hyped ‘smart’ grid and ‘smart’ meters. There are much better ways to modernize our electrical grid if Big Brother snooping, ultimate corporate control and quick profit aren’t the driving motives.
(4/19/12) Today, the CPUC Commissioners unanimously passed both SDG&E and SCE opt-out proposals for the utilities’ embattled RF-radiation emitting smart meters. This will impact Southern California customers of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, two of the state’s three largest independently operated utilities. Residential customers of both utilities may now officially request that the smart meters be removed from their residences. Edison indicates 28,000 have indicated an interest in opting out, and SDG&E has gone from an estimate of around a hundred to 3,000, to date. We think if the public understood the health, safety, privacy, or security issues better, and there was not a fee, close to 100% would opt-out.
…Edison Deploying Smart Meters in Santa Barbara Area
Call and Opt-Out Now – Before it’s too Late.
Courtesy Notice from Consumers Power Alliance
Santa Barbara Tea Party and Culpepper Society, 2/11/12
1. Warning: Act Now or Your Rights will be Violated
According to Doug Malousis, manager of district readiness for SCE, who made the smart meter presentation to Goleta City Council this past Tuesday 2/7, 75 to 100 Corix trucks will invade Santa Barbara area to install smart meters starting later this month. If you or your neighbors, family and friends do not call and get on the Delay Install List, SCE says their installer – Corix – can and will enter your property and replace your safe, reliable analog meter.
2. Edison’s D-Day* Invasion – Announced Schedule
Customer letter mailing re: Edison SmartConnect program: Early February 2012
Cell Relay and District Transition End-point Deployment: February 2012
Mass Deployment Start Date: March ’12 98% Saturation – Target Date: June 2012
Total District Volumes: 86,220 Read more.
And finally, here’s how one industry pundit thinks the opt-out tsunami sweeping the country can be stopped: “just address privacy concerns.” Simple, huh?
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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
Or…just:
‘Smart’ as the New Stupid
More support for what we’ve been reporting for months: A wireless power grid mediated by ‘smart’ meters is a national security blunder of the highest order. A video and three recent articles.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The vulnerability of the energy industry’s new wireless smart grid will inevitably lead to lights out for everyone, according to leading cyber expert David Chalk. In an online interview for an upcoming documentary film entitled ‘Take Back Your Power’ (www.ThePowerFilm.org), Chalk says the entire power grid will be at risk to being taken down by cyber attack, and if installations continue it’s only a matter of time.
“Unless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years”
“We’re in a state of crisis,” said Chalk. “The front door is open and there is no lock to be had. There is not a power meter or device on the grid that is protected from hacking – if not already infected – with some sort of trojan horse that can cause the grid to be shut down or completely annihilated.”
“One of the most amazing things that has happened to mankind in the last 100 years is the Internet. It’s given us possibility beyond our wildest imagination. But we also know the vulnerabilities that exist inside of it. And then we have the backbone, the power grid that powers our nations. Those two are coming together. And it’s the smart meter on your home or business that’s now allowing that connectivity.” Read more.
A series of hacks perpetrated against so-called “smart meter” installations over the past several years may have cost a single U.S. electric utility hundreds of millions of dollars annually, the FBI said in a cyber intelligence bulletin obtained by KrebsOnSecurity. The law enforcement agency said this is the first known report of criminals compromising the hi-tech meters, and that it expects this type of fraud to spread across the country as more utilities deploy smart grid technology….
…The FBI believes that miscreants hacked into the smart meters using an optical converter device — such as an infrared light — connected to a laptop that allows the smart meter to communicate with the computer. After making that connection, the thieves changed the settings for recording power consumption using software that can be downloaded from the Internet.
“The optical converter used in this scheme can be obtained on the Internet for about $400,” the alert reads. “The optical port on each meter is intended to allow technicians to diagnose problems in the field. This method does not require removal, alteration, or disassembly of the meter, and leaves the meter physically intact.”
The bureau also said another method of attacking the meters involves placing a strong magnet on the devices, which causes it to stop measuring usage, while still providing electricity to the customer.
“This method is being used by some customers to disable the meter at night when air-conditioning units are operational. The magnets are removed during working hours when the customer is not home, and the meter might be inspected by a technician from the power company.”
“Each method causes the smart meter to report less than the actual amount of electricity used. The altered meter typically reduces a customer’s bill by 50 percent to 75 percent. Because the meter continues to report electricity usage, it appears be operating normally. Since the meter is read remotely, detection of the fraud is very difficult. A spot check of meters conducted by the utility found that approximately 10 percent of meters had been altered.”
“The FBI assesses with medium confidence that as Smart Grid use continues to spread throughout the country, this type of fraud will also spread because of the ease of intrusion and the economic benefit to both the hacker and the electric customer,” the agency said in its bulletin.
False data injection attacks exploit the configuration of power grids by introducing arbitrary errors into state variables while bypassing existing techniques for bad measurement detection; experts say current generation of smart meters are not secure enough against false data injection attacks
Circle the other day announced the results of a survey of 104 energy security professionals. The survey was sponsored by nCircle and EnergySec, a DOE-funded public-private partnership that works to enhance the cyber security of the electric infrastructure. The online survey was conducted between 12 March and 31 March 2012.
When asked, “Do smart meter installations have sufficient security controls to protect against false data injection?” 61 percent said “no.” Read more.
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