I never liked the idea of them in the first place, for a variety of reasons, but I'm here to tell you that maybe you have noticed a lack of commentary, content, or enthusiasm here lately. If you have, you are right.
In all honesty, I'm sick of reading the same things over and over again, seeing the same status quo powers having their agenda advanced and none other. It's been over five years now, and it's enough already.
Now, on the with totalitarian tyranny in the name of altruism and saving the planet:
"Utility smart meters raise health, privacy concerns" by Alyssa Edes | Globe Correspondent, June 01, 2013
Utilities across the country are installing so-called smart meters in homes and businesses to allow them to better track and manage energy use by their customers, aiming to increase efficiency, lower costs, and reduce pollution.
But the advanced meters, which use wireless and digital technologies to send frequent consumption data to utilities, face opposition from customers and others who see them as a threat to health, privacy, and security.
Already, eight states, including Maine and Vermont, have adopted laws or regulations that make it easier for customers to opt out of smart-meter programs and keep old analog meters. Eight others, including Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., are considering similar measures. Representative Thomas Conroy, Democrat of Wayland, has filed a bill in the Legislature that would give Massachusetts residents the right to say no to smart meters.
“I’ll admit I haven’t done all the research on the alleged or real health effects of smart meter technology,” said Conroy. “But with an abundance of caution from my constituents, the least I could do was offer a piece of legislation to bridge the gap until the science catches up with the potential effects of smart meters, if there are any.”
The opposition to the meters represents a hitch to one of the key energy initiatives of the Obama administration in Washington and Governor Deval Patrick’s administration in Massachusetts — the smart grid. Smart grid proponents hope to incorporate information technology and advanced communications into the production, distribution, and consumption of electricity to make the power system more efficient, less costly, and more environmentally friendly.
It all sounds good at the start.
A Massachusetts law requires all utilities in the state to undertake pilot programs to test how smart grid technologies, such as advanced meters, can help cut energy use. By more effectively managing supply and demand, smart grid advocates say, the power system can avoid the costs of building new plants and transmission while reducing pollution emitted by plants.
For example, on a hot summer afternoon when the power system is near capacity, utilities monitoring energy use through smart meters might raise thermostats a few degrees in the homes and businesses of willing customers, reducing demand and avoiding the need to start up expensive plants known as “peakers” to meet short-term need.
Yes, it REALLY IS GETTING HOTTER in here, and it is NOT YOU!
Ultimately, that could lead to lower bills.
Could.... or could not, which is more often the norm (as Cape Wind consumers).
“If enough people opt out, it really dampens the positive impacts the technology can have on the system as a whole,” said Shanna Cleveland, senior lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group.
With all due respect, I never trust agenda-pushing organizations cited by agenda-pushing newspapers.
Utilities face opposition from people who see threats to health, privacy, and the security of the nation’s power grid.
You aren't for lower electric bills?
Opponents say the meters emit dangerous levels of radiation through the radio frequencies that allow communications between the meters, utilities, and “smart” appliances, including thermostats....
Oh, that's just conspiracy talk -- until it is validated later, then it was just conspiracy talk confirmed by authoritative government and proclaimed by corporate mouthpiece media -- leading on to make a call that no connections will ever be made by authorities, for the u$ual rea$ons.
Skeptics worry that increasing reliance on computer technology could make the power grid more vulnerable to cyber attacks, which could shut down whole cities.
There is that. Thank God the cyberattacks are false flags by the USraeli intelligence apparatus.
Last week, US Representatives Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat running for the Senate, and Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, released a report calling for legislation to enhance the security of the power system.
I don't know if that will win you election, Ed.
Smart meters also gather data on household energy use. If stolen or hacked, they could reveal personal information, such as when a consumer wakes up, goes to bed, or runs a device like a washing machine, said Ernie Hayden, managing principal of energy security at Verizon Global Energy and Utility Practice.
I usually login, logout here.
“In the old days [meters] didn’t tell me anything about what you were using the electricity for, why you were using it, when you were using it,” he said. “If I had a million peoples’ worth of data, there’s value in that because now I could sell it.”
It's at the bottom of all things AmeriKan now.
Drew said National Grid has safeguarded customers’ personal information for years, and will continue to do so.
Except we have seen that is now assurance at all given all the personal data government and business have lost all these years.
Customers can opt out of smart meters by contacting customer service, she said.
Why should one have to "opt out" in a free(?) America?
NStar and Unitil Corp. both completed pilot programs with little controversy in 2010 and 2011.
Yeah, you were having radiation beamed at you for two years and never knew it. Enjoy the cancers in about 25 years. Sorry, we don't know what caused it. Coulda been anything. You like food or water?
--more--"
Also see: Smart Meter Stimulates Maine Unemployment
The AmeriKan MSM's Long, Slow, Ceaseless Fart
What has it been, at least five years now?
"A long-awaited season seems at last to have arrived. Summer is here. Winter seems like it happened years ago. Even last weekend, when it got down to 41 in Boston, feels like a distant joke.... official heat wave."
Well, it's supposed to be hot, it's summer, although we just had snow a week ago.
I figure my endless anger and rage at the AmeriKan media is jacking it up a few degrees, and the later laughing isn't helping either.
