I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared.
Over the past year, a revolt against the rollout of utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s smart meters has swept through Northern California as some customers claimed the devices’ wireless transmission of electricity data was harming their health. In response, city councils in a number of cities tried to ban their installation.
On Thursday, PG&E, acting under orders from state regulators, unveiled a proposal to let customers have their smart meter’s radio turned off — for a price. PG&E would charge a one-time fee ranging from $105 to $270 and then customers would pay between $14 and $20 a month for two years. All in all, it would cost about $600 for the average customer to disable their smart meter.
“This cost is based on what it costs PG&E to disable the radio, adjust our IT system, adjust our billing system, and to manually read customers,” Paul Moreno, a PG&E spokesperson, said in an email.
In other words, that’s the price of dumbing down smart meters.
Tens of the millions of the devices are being installed nationwide and are a linchpin of the coming smart grid. Smart meters monitor electricity use in real time, allowing utilities to better balance supply and demand and charge accordingly. Customers can use that data to adjust their electricity use when rates are high and pinpoint the power hogs in their homes.
PG&E expects nearly 150,000 of its 5.1 million customers to shut down their smart meters’ radio transmitters.
“There is a loss of the benefits of the smart grid (power outage detection, ability to participate in demand response programs to reduce peak demand energy and better utilize renewable power),” said Moreno.
While the rollout has gone fairly smoothly in Southern California, some activists in the greater Bay Area claim the frequencies emitted by the smart meters’ wireless transmitters have triggered migraines and myriad other health problems.
“I’m here to charge you with the following criminal counts,” one person told members of the California Public Utilities Commission at a meeting last September. “This is misguided, Big Brother green ideology that the smart meters support.”
“This is massive experimentation of massive proportions and we are the victims,” declared another person.
Mobile phones, microwave ovens, and a host of other household gadgets also emit such frequencies, and to date there has been no scientific evidence to support claims about the health effects of smart meters.
(When I was at Southern California Edison in Los Angeles last October, an executive told me that utility had received only a handful of complaints about its smart meters.)
Nonetheless, regulators ordered PG&E to allow customers to opt out of the smart-meter program. The utilities commission must approve the utility’s proposal, so expect more fireworks over the cost of disabling smart meters.
Green Wombat 
1. INSURANCE COMPANIES WON’T INSURE THE HEALTH PROBLEMS FROM WIRELESS Smart Meters
And Insurance companies don’t sacrifice insurance premiums ($$$) for no reason.
TV NEWS VIDEO – Insurance Companies Won’t Insure Wireless Device Health Risks (3 minutes, 13 seconds)
http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=382
2. WIRELESS SMART METERS TRANSMIT RADIATION APPROXIMATELY 25,000 TIMES PER DAY, 24/7, not 45 seconds per day as claimed by Utility Company.
VIDEO – Radiation Measured From Smart Meter Mounted On A Home (6 minutes, 21 seconds)
3. CELL DAMAGE, DNA BREAKS & BREACHES IN THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER observed in laboratory tests from low levels of pulsed RF signal radiation as emitted by Wireless smart meters – reported by Top Wireless radiation scientists in the world at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco Nov 18, 2010:
VIDEO – http://electromagnetichealth.o…
4. THE KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE IN STOCKHOLM THAT GIVES NOBEL PRIZES ISSUES GLOBAL WARNING AGAINST WIRELESS SMART METERS.
2-page Press Release:
Millions of SmartMeters INCREASE ENERGY USE, as they use CUSTOMERS ELECTRICITY 25,000 times a day!!
Millions of babies, children and their families are being sickened, and will die from Microwave Radiation emitted by dangerous SmartMeters, Cell Phone Companies and their Antenna arrays.
There are NO Environmental or Energy Benefits from Smartmeters Only Financial Benefit to Evil Corps., Pg & e, and CPUC, that twist the truth.
100’s of International Studies PROVE Damage to DNA from RF MIcrowave Radiation were ignored and omitted.
1. INSURANCE COMPANIES WON’T INSURE THE HEALTH PROBLEMS FROM WIRELESS Smart Meters
And Insurance companies don’t sacrifice insurance premiums ($$$) for no reason.
TV NEWS VIDEO (3 minutes, 13 seconds)
http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=382
2. WIRELESS SMART METERS TRANSMIT RADIATION APPROXIMATELY 25,000 TIMES PER DAY, 24/7, not 45 seconds per day as claimed by Utility Company.
VIDEO – Radiation Measured From Smart Meter Mounted On A Home (6 min)
3. CELL DAMAGE, DNA BREAKS & BREACHES IN THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER observed in laboratory tests from low levels of pulsed RF signal radiation as emitted by Wireless smart meters – reported by Top Wireless radiation scientists in the world:
VIDEO – http://electromagnetichealth.o…
4. THE KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE IN STOCKHOLM THAT GIVES NOBEL PRIZES ISSUES GLOBAL WARNING AGAINST WIRELESS SMART METERS.
Facing mounting opposition to wireless ‘smart’ meters being rolled out by California utilities, including a total of 34 local jurisdictions who have demanded that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) halt further installation because of widespread reports of health impacts and other concerns, the CPUC signalled at its March 10th meeting that it would ask one of California’s utilities- PG&E- to develop a plan to allow customers to opt out of having a wireless meter installed- at customers’ expense. The plan is expected to be presented at the CPUC’s meeting tomorrow- Thursday, March 24th at 9am, where local government officials and a growing chorus of environmental health advocates will renew demands for an immediate moratorium on installation and hearings on health impacts.
THIRTY-FOUR CA LOCAL GOVTS DEMAND SMART METER MORATORIUM
Smart Meter opponents welcomed the CPUC’s admission that the deepening ‘smart’ meter crisis requires an urgent response, but slammed the meager steps proposed to address it. Lawyers protecting people from Microwave Radiation and the dangers of Smart Meters stated, “Admitting that there is a problem is the first step to fixing that problem. However, an individual opt out at customer expense is a diversion. What if you are too poor to avoid having a wireless meter- is the state saying you have to pay to avoid being totured by microwave radiation in your own home? That sounds an awful lot like extortion. What if you live in an apartment building with dozens of meters on your bedroom wall? The people of California were never asked whether we wanted these meters- nevertheless we are now paying extra for them through higher rates. And now the utilities want to charge us even more to opt out of a program that we never asked for? What is going on here?”
The wireless meters have been widely reported to cause severe and debilitating health effects, long-term, many Cancers, Brain and Salivary gland Tumors, infertility, autism, short-term-nausea, sleep disruption, flu symptoms, headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears, memory loss and heart palpitations among susceptible individuals due to the constant bursts of microwave radiation. The movement against wireless meters is the sharp end of a growing movement demanding health-based standards for wireless technology. Michael Peevey, who Gov. Brown has allowed to continue chairing the Commission, has continually insulted individuals with sensitivities to electromagnetic radiation, inferring that they are ‘just making it up.’ Peevey, the former President and Senior Executive of Southern California Edison (SCE) has ties to the telecommunications industry, and continues to chair the Commission that is meant to oversee the utilities, despite popular outrage about clear conflicts of interest. SCE plans to have installed 5.3 million meters between 2009 and 2012.
Health advocates say they will continue protests and civil disobedience until a moratorium is imposed on any further installation, independent hearings on health are scheduled at the state level, and the utilities are directed to remove unwanted meters.
Yes, we should not have to suffer ill health so that PG&E can keep their faulty meters. However they want to charge you some pretty hefty fees for something you never wanted and for something that is making some of us ill. We have high medical costs, and this fee is an added burden to the already big problem the meters caused. Why are we having to pay for that mistake?
contact them at public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov and tell them you want the meter removed WITHOUT the fees.