SDG&E and SCE Opt-out Thoughts

First of all, I want to commend UCAN and Southern Californians for a Wired Solution (SCWSSM), two San Diego County organizations that also worked hard on this opt-out. UCAN filed the initial application, so we are especially indebted to them. SCWSSM has filed numerous briefs Protests and Comments in the formal proceedings on behalf of disabled and medically ill utility customers who cannot tolerate smart meters for medical reasons, and who need to be accommodated under the Americans With Disabilities Act. I also want to thank the courageous and tenacious Northern Californian activist groups like StopSmartMeters.org and EMF Safety Network, who organized early, attended at least a hundred CPUC meetings, agitated, spoke, protested, marched, rallied, conducted acts of civil disobedience like removing the smart meters and returning them to the utility office in a group of 12, blocked utility contractors' trucks from leaving to go install smart meters, stood outside utility workplaces with bullhorns going, protested at the CEO's home, worked tirelessly on legal proceedings, rallied 54 California  municipalities to ban, outlaw, or criminalize the installation of smart meters, including 10 counties; and even have been jailed, on behalf of all Californians, to bring us to this point. I want to thank Ecological Options Network for filming all of the above and making it available on YouTube. We have benefited in Southern CA from their phenomenal efforts. We are far from done, too, because this opt-out was designed to be temporary, very limited, and to discourage opting out. I'd like to thank the Patch editors who have been supportive in helping get information out to the public, when few others in the media would.

Center for Electrosmog Prevention, while welcoming any relief in the form of an opt-out, believes that having to pay for the smart meter opt-out is illegal and will be proven so, with all funds restored back to the customers. The idea of having to pay not to be irradiated and harmed, or have your privacy invaded is outrageous. The activists and people up in Northern California think it smacks of "extortion" - "Pay me or I will continue to harm you." "If you can't afford it, too bad." "If you don't know about the smart meter risks or the opt-out - too bad." The CPUC has turned into a rogue agency that needs to be reigned in. The utilities need true regulating or to be broken up, we don't need monopolies that act like this. We surely don't need our properties invaded with RF radiation and our privacy and freedoms destroyed. The smart meter experiment needs to be over.

From our recent opt-out legal filing: "All costs proposed by Judge Yip-Kikugawa are illegal under California Public Utilities Code Section 453, which subjects all customers and those with medical conditions to prejudice and disadvantage, requiring different rates and charges, giving preferential treatment to those with higher incomes.

(a) No public utility shall, as to rates, charges, service,facilities, or in any other respect, make or grant any preference or advantage to any corporation or person or subject any corporation or person to any prejudice or disadvantage.

(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 11135of the Government Code…

(c) No public utility shall establish or maintain any unreasonable difference as to rates, charges, service, facilities, or in anyother respect, either as between localities or as between classes of service. (California Public Utilities Code Section 453)"

Read more at http://www.electrosmogprevention.org/stop-ca-smart-meter-news/cpuc-passes-sdge-sce-opt-out-plans-41912/.

We are very disturbed that commercial opt-outs are not being allowed, that banks of multiple meters multiply the exposures, that people must suffer from neighboring meters, that many will never hear of the smart meter problems and opt-out availability, that many can't afford it, and that people have waited so long for help and all we have is a partial plan that is being called "interim" by the CPUC. Batten down the hatches because the public is simply not going to allow the bureau-rats and utilities to ruin our lives and freedoms. We will stand up and we will win. Period. It is either that or kiss America goodbye. I hope there are enough people left to stand up for America, our freedoms, and our families' health, and say, "Heck, no." Will you?

Susan Brinchman
Director, Center for Electrosmog Prevention
P.O. Box 655
La Mesa, CA
91944
director@electrosmogprevention.org

www.electrosmogprevention.org
Smart Meter Dangers http://www.smartmeterdangers.org/
Southern Californians Against Smart Meters
American Coalition Against Smart Meters www.causes.com/acasm

No2SmartMeters@Twitter.com (sign up for news article alerts)