From Del. Glen Glass:
The utility companies in Maryland are installing Smart Meters on our homes, our businesses and our schools to collect our usage information for billing purposes. The information is transmitted to the utilities through wireless communication. This is an invasion of our right of privacy, as the utilities are able to collect personal data from each of its customers.
Smart Meters have also been linked to health issues and to home fires. This is a safety issue which all consumers should be made aware of, and one in which they should have the ability to opt-out of having one of these meters installed, at no cost to them.
I have introduced the Smart Meters No Cost Opt-out bill the past two sessions. This year, the bill was referred to summer study in the Economic Matters Committee, where it will be examined and may be used as a framework for codifying into law what the no cost opt-out provision would look like.
This is a bipartisan issue that has support in the Maryland Legislature from members of both parties. It is about freedom of choice, and being able to make that choice without a fee being attached to it. Also, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Baltimore has just announced their support of the Maryland Smart Meter Awareness movement to provide a no cost opt-out solution, and is urging their members to take action now to opt-out.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) met to consider the Smart Meter Opt-out option. The PSC tasked its staff to study the information that has been submitted and make a recommendation to the PSC as to what course of action it should take.
I will continue to fight against any fee being imposed to opt-out of installation of Smart Meters.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/05/03/not-so-smart-meters-overbilling-californians/
The utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, admitted yesterday that about 1,600 so-called “smart meters” had charged customers for phantom power. The meters, manufactured by Landis+Gyr, malfunctioned when they get too hot.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/self-combusting-smart-meters/
http://www.wusa9.com/video/2176584039001/1/Smart-Meters-May-Emit-Radiation-More-Frequently-than-Pepco-Admits
“… We know that smart meters can be real-time surveillance spies. At the last Chaos Communication Congress in Germany, researchers presented “Smart Hacking For Privacy” and demonstrated that detailed smart meter data can show what TV shows you watch, scan for copyright-protected DVD movies you watch, and other privacy intrusive details. Yet it took an amateur hacker only two days to hack a home smart meter and fake the readings — which could result in a utility bill showing absolutely no power consumption at all.
IEEE Spectrum previously explained, “It all sounds less paranoid when you consider that each appliance” has its “own energy fingerprint” that a smart meter can read. Who might want to read the smart meter data? Insurance companies to “determine health care premiums based on unusual behaviors that might indicate illness,” or private investigators to “monitor specific events” or even criminals to learn high-priced appliances and the best times to steal them. Add to that mix the CIA, since household spy devices will “change our notions of secrecy,” especially for anyone considered a ‘person of interest.'”
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/cia-wants-spy-you-through-your-appliances
Confirmed: Glen Glass is an idiot.
Why would you ever be against a consumer having the ability to make a choice. Unless you are one of the many who are ever calling for an end to anything free market? Regardless of what you choose to believe about the problems with smart meters. If you dont want one on your house you should be free to not have one.
Yes but should other customers experience higher rates so that someone can come out special to your house and read your meter? Essentially meter reading is speed up by this process and hindered by customers who opt out. This means more man power that has to be paid. If you want to opt out than you should have to pay the provider for that service.
Cdev
You’re wrong again about Smart-Meters.
The utility should give a discount to customers who opt-in.
People who opt-out get no discount.
Either way would be fine. Either way there is a differentiated cost!
CDev, So are you personally guaranteeing that these meters will always be accurate, will not be harmful to anyone’s health, can’t be hacked and will never be used for anything other than measuring the amount of power that passes thru it?
Pick a supplier you trust….like picking a bank!
CDev, I’m not sure you understand that you can’t pick a supplier for the smart meter. You can’t pick the brand of smart meter and you can’t pick where you get it. BGE is the only option. The choose the meter and they install it. This is the delivery side of the equation, CDev, not the supplier side.
Thanks for the info I assumed the supplier handled that. Than since their is an increased risk of cancer with any EM signal should we opt out of having wires supply the electricity?
I wouldn’t make a claim about any technology Alex. Since the advent of the industrial age there has been increased risk associated with just living in the environment that has been impacted by all the technologies that have come along. The question you have to ask yourself is, Is the risk any greater than that from any of the following sources:
Cellphones
Cellphone Towers
Microwave Ovens
Televisions
Weather Radar
Asbestos
Fiberglas Particulates
High Voltage Electric Lines
Transformers
Diesel Exhaust
Coal Fired Power Plants
Natural Gas Fired Power Plants
Disposal of Radioactive Waste
Super Germs developing resistance to Antibiotics
Astrophysics (To invoke our crazy friend Gal Ore)
Increased Sea Levels
African Bees
Pick your poison Alex. There’s a bunch of stuff here that you have denied in the past cause any harm. Now we’re talking smart meters and suddenly you guys are environmentally aware. Exactly what is your deal? Is it Government Mandate : BAD, Private Industry: GOOD?
Alex R, are you personally guaranteeing that the people who come to read your meter aren’t making errors or recording incorrect readings (maliciously or otherwise)?
Tinfoiltommy – if you understood how a meter is actually read you would know a mistake this month will self correct next month.
RE-CONFIRMED: Glen Glass and Chris Turner, Esq. are idiots.
Confirmed : WTF ? is a bigger idiot. Just bury your head in the sand and do whatever you are told.
take the report an independent research team, Sage Associates, recently published, entitled “Assessment of Radiofrequency Microwave Radiation Emissions from Smart Meters”. This is a detailed report basing its conclusions on clear evidence of Smart Meter dangers.
The conclusions of the research team include the fact that Smart Meters often may not even comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) safety standards. And these standards in themselves are insufficient for measuring smart meter radiation levels.
The report also outlines how FCC standards, set back in 1996, were based on studies with healthy 6’2”, 220 lbs men exposed for short periods of time—very different from the situation with Smart Meters, in which women, children and people in fragile health are continuously exposed to the radiation, often from more than one smart meter.
Furthermore, the regulations only tested for thermal damage—and the health risks researchers are finding are from non-thermal effects. Also, other sources of radiation (such as Wi-Fi, cell phones, and other wireless devices, all present in today’s homes) were not present in the testing. For all these reasons, the report strongly cautions that smart meters are not safe.
Calling for immediate caution regarding Smart Meter installations due to radiation health risks, a letter published by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine cites a number of peer-reviewed, double-blinded, placebo-controlled research in humans, and concludes that
“…significant harmful biological effects occur from non-thermal RF exposure, showing causality.”
It further states its opinion that the installation is irresponsible and calls not only for a moratorium on installation, but also immediate relief to those requesting it, including the return of analog meters.
The literature cited in the letter raises serious concerns about the levels of RF and ELF exposures emitted by Smart Meters. The board also states that the existing FCC guidelines for RF safety that have been used to justify installation of Smart Meters only look at thermal damage and are obsolete since many up-to-date studies show metabolic & genetic damage from RF & ELF below the level of intensity which heats tissues.
In January 2012, the Public Health Officer and County Counsel of the County of Santa Cruz wrote a report to the Board of Supervisors, outlining their analysis of health effects of Smart Meter radiation. The lengthy, detailed letter included numerous citations of evidence of health dangers from Smart Meters.
It recommends that
…it is in the best interest of public health, safety, and welfare…to adopt the…ordinance implementing a temporary moratorium on the installation of SmartMeters in or on any home, apartment, condominium or business within the the unincorporated area of the County.
Inside each device is a sim card that enables it to communicate with the utility companies that supply the gas and electricity. This is how the utilities will always be able to supply an accurate meter reading. But it will also enable them remotely to terminate your supply if, for example, you fail to pay your bills on time. Which means – and here’s the interesting bit – Kim Jong-un, the Chinese army or any number of unsavoury characters in the Middle East or Russia could do the same.
“The off switch creates information security problems of a kind, and on a scale, that the energy companies have not had to face before,” writes Professor Ross Anderson, one of the country’s leading experts on cyber-security, in an oft-cited analysis. “From the viewpoint of a cyber attacker – whether a hostile government agency, a terrorist organisation or even a militant environmental group – the ideal attack on a target country is to interrupt its citizens’ electricity supply. This is the cyber equivalent of a nuclear strike; when electricity stops, then pretty soon everything else does too. Until now, the only plausible ways to do that involved attacks on critical generation, transmission and distribution assets, which are increasingly well defended. Smart meters change the game.”
I want to thank all of you for your comments. People who opt out from receiving a Smart Meter should get a discount from the utility companies because there would be no cost for the new meter; these meters need to be replaced every 5 to 7 years. Also, people can read their own meter and send the numbers back to the utility company, thus saving the company the cost of meter readers. Maryland is the Free State and I promise to work on this until we have a NO COST OPT OUT for all citizens. Your Delegate and servant, Glen Glass 443-360-8607
I am sure people would accurately report their meter reading!!!!! BTW regular meters need replaced too!
Two things, CDev. The cost of replacing regular meters is already built n to the rate structure and has been since there has been a PSC and a rate structure. Second, When I lived in another Maryland jurisdiction some years ago people did actually send in their meter reading 2 months out of 3 and BGE read the meter quarterly. If people didn’t send in a meter reading BGE billed their average usage until the meter was read by BGE personnel on the quarterly cycle. Savings to BGE on meter reading = 75% less cost of postage.
Oh, Judy, honey, where did you/I learn my math? HCPS? Make that 67%.
The same people who are afraid of the harmful effects of a smart meter are the ones eating seafood mainly crabs from a polluted bay full of human sewage, talk all day long on hand held smart phones while guzzling a science experiment of a diet soda while smoking cheap off brand cigarets. Yes mr Glass and the people of maryland don’t get near your electric meter if it doesn’t kill you it is spying on you…..
Please tell me that this guy isn’t running for CE?
No, Glassman is running for CE, not this joker.
I’m convinced that the only reason Glen Glass got elected is because people got confused and though he was Glassman.
there is an easy solution .. go off the grid.. take a lesson from the Amish..
we didn’t like computers controlling our cars, we have them. we didn’t like automated banking. it’s a way of life. We pushed back against the evil of wireless phones.. now most don’t have a land-line.
if you don’t want it, have them cut power and remove it. feel free to hook up some batteries, a windmill, some solar panels and a hand crank.
why should the ones who A. don’t care; B. would like the smart meter and C. like to move on with technology be held back and have to pay more for keeping an old system alive and all the support that goes with it. If people want there old one, there should be a fee. it should be adjusted to cover all costs, unit, maintenance, personnel. Then see what they want to do.
really Glen.. you got nothing better to do? they are cutting slots at APG, people are out of jobs or having pay cut and this is the best you can work on?