From Del. Glen Glass:
Dear Neighbor:
It has been an honor of mine to serve as a Delegate of the State of Maryland thus far. Your continued support and feedback have been critical and are important to me. I think it is important to offer you some feedback of my own. With that said, I want to take this opportunity to provide you with an update on the topic of smart meters.
2014 Session Legislation
This session, I have introduced two bills related to smart meters. House Bill (HB) 331 seeks to prohibit utility companies from disclosing consumers’ usage data to third parties. HB 332 looks out for utility consumers by allowing them to opt-out of a smart meter installation at no cost. There has been some attention given by the Senate on these two bills. The Senate’s version of HB 331 and HB 332 is SB 280 and SB 880, respectively. It is a victory that two Senators have introduced those bills in the Senate. Because of that, it is possible that the smart meter legislations will have a better chance of passing and being implemented into law by the end of this year’s session.
HB 331 and HB 332 will be heard on March 6, 2014 at 1:00pm in the House Economic Matters Committee. SB 280 and SB 880 will both be heard on March 4, 2014 at 1:00pm in the Senate Finance Committee. Please do not hesitate to contact my office if you are interested in testifying for any of these bills.
How to Defer the Installation of a Smart Meter
Until the Maryland Public Service Commission makes it decision on opting-out, you can send a letter to your utility company requesting a smart meter to not be installed. Please find attached a document ready to be printed and filled out. The document provides detailed information on how to defer the installation of a smart meter. In short, the necessary information you need when notifying your utility company is your name, address, account number, and signature.
“As Big Brother As It Gets”
The issue of privacy is huge when it comes to smart meters. Smart meters essentially enable utility companies to have access to detailed, personal information of the usage of electronics in your home. This YouTube video describes the extent to which smart meters enable utility companies to have access to various forms of information based on one’s usage data. The information provided in the video is worth some consideration.
More Information
More information on smart meters and how to opt-out can be found at www.marylandsmartmeterawareness.org.
Thank You!
Once again, thank you for your continued support. I appreciate your taking the time to read this email. Please do not hesitate to contact my office should you have any comments, questions, or concerns. Also, I encourage you to contact your other Delegates and Senators to express your thoughts on the proposed bills.
Your Delegate and Servant,
Delegate Glen Glass
District 34A
Bless you Delegate Glass, and the noted Senators, for continuing the fight to secure a no cost opt out for Maryland residents. The utilities should be ashamed for moving ahead with installations, since they have blatantly ignored public/officially-voiced concerns not only regarding the lack of health testing, but also for their laughable cost projections which were based solely on estimates as opposed to any facts. Such ridiculous estimates were actually not surprising, considering they never bothered to run a pilot program comparing analog vs smart meters, which would have produced fact-based statistics. (If they DID run a pilot, they certainly did not “communicate” the results with customers. Apparently the MD PSC also doesn’t feel Maryland residents deserve to see proven, fact-based statistics, which may or may not justify a given decision on the question of a no cost, no fee opt out. I mean, after all, the only people affected are the largest demographic in the state of Maryland, ie. just everyone who uses electricity, that’s all ? And you’re right, the loss of privacy is colossal. As to the observation that the utilities ‘will have access’ to private info. I suggest that is putting it mildly. What people should also think about, is that your private info will actually be “taken” by the utilities, via the smart meter two-way communication feature. Since your own private info is indeed your own private ‘property’, I would urge every Maryland citizen to be outraged, as well, at the illegal taking of your personal property. CALL YOUR DELEGATES AND SENATORS IMMEDIATELY AND DEMAND SUPPORT FOR A TOTAL MORATORIUM ON SMART METERS. Our country, as we know it, will stand or fall, based on how this debacle proceeds.
But fracking is proven to be safe…. yeah baby.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PrMTqBqF7SA/Sn2pqyQQ1aI/AAAAAAAAAUs/9daSJlrLx7A/s400/tinfoil-hat-2.jpg
Good God who are the idiots that vote for people like Glen? The power company will know when your wife is using her vibrator and for how long…. LOL
Dear Bill H.,
Please click on the link provided so that you may understand the full scope of the problem. Your comment is very typical and you need not feel ashamed of your ignorance. You comment highlights the problem Delegate Glass has to deal with on a daily basis. Your comment helped our cause beyond anything I could ever say http://www.metering.com/smart-home-appliances-used-in-first-iot-cyberattack/
Anita
Just get some Aluminum Foil… mold a hat and put it over your smart meter and you’ll be fine.
Anita please educate yourself and watch Glens video, this has nothing to do with spam emails for viagra being sent from your refrigerator.
I just don’t get the outrage over this. Do these people not have cell phones, cable tv, or even a landline? The same types of data are available by monitoring the usage of those things.
To Crazy: I just don’t get how you can fail to see the difference. Are you FORCED to use your cell phone and/or cable tv and/or landline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? A smart meter on your home is 24×7, and it is monitoring 24×7, collecting data on anything and everything you do, that draws electricity. Any device that monitors 24×7 also has the power to control and manipulate what you do in your home 24×7. While the magnitude of that may be relatively small at the moment, every new device you bring into your home that has a ‘smart chip’ in it – will add another dimension where your OWN choices and your OWN privacy, are compromised. Why give the utility companies (who can and will certainly be subject to any government or agency pressure as more and more laws are enacted to rob us of our freedom) the power to know and/or control the intimate details of what you do in your home? You HAVE to have the ability to think beyond the nose on your face in this matter. Think of the simple example of a hard-working truck driver, with a CDL license. For whatever reason he can’t sleep half the night, on a regular basis. Then some other truck driver falls asleep at the wheel and has an accident that kills some people. Bingo. The next thing you know, there’s a directive from the DOT, or any other pertinent agency, demanding the utilities turn over usage data from the homes of all CDL-licensed truck drivers. The ‘data analytics’ quickly produce a profile of all truck drivers whose home-area-network-controlled lights are on all night (or some arbitrary amount of time that some government employee decides is not “normal”) – and whaddayaknow…..the next time those truck drivers go to renew their CDL licenses – they are met with some bureaucrat saying “we’re sorry Mr. Smith – your home habits indicate you are putting other citizens at risk by driving a truck when you are sleep-deprived….your CDL license will not be renewed……next in line please ? ” Open your eyes folks.
I don’t care who you are that’s is the funniest thing I have ever read. You should take up a career in creative comedic writing you have natural talent.
Do you really think they will find your hydroponic garden of pot plants and your wife’s vibrator set to stun?
InGodWeTrust,
Do you even know how a breaker panel works?
To all the pea-brains: Regardless of how much pleasure you derive from keeping your head in the sand regarding smart meters, even pea-brains should be capable of understanding that while the utilities focus on and waste money installing smart meters, they fail to address a truly critical problem, that of hardening or securing the grid against purposeful attack (ex. in California recently). Instead, they are hell-bent on putting new lipstick on an old pig. As we speak, there is NATIONAL legislation that is attempting to raise the priority for grid hardening – but again – it is running into head-in-the-sand zombies such as yourselves. Don’t worry, when you have NO electricity for at least a year (after either the next terrorist attack, or even a solar EMP event, for which we will have to depend on China or Germany for replacement parts/transformers etc., because we no longer manufacture them in this country) – the ‘pesky’ little smart meter opponent comments will no longer bother you. Sleep well, little pea-brains….sleep well.
I got a box full of electric I keep under the bed in case of emergency.
Another bill of Glass that a senator will get credit for like his veteran bill. Glen no one likes you in Annapolis how does that help me your constituent?
Really??!!! Not sure why folks have to be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. The efficiency and sustainability brought about by the use of Smart Meters helps us all progress to a better environment/lifestyle. The goal is to curb wasted energy, cut costs AND help maintain local and national power grids so we ALL can share one of the best and most dependable electrical energy hookups in the world. The disinformation spread by Glass and others who apparently lack the ability to understand this issue, does nothing to promote our country’s need to more ahead with needed technological improvements. No one needs to be paranoid about all the B.S. the doomsdayers are claiming is going to happen when your Smart Meter is installed (they will know when you’re using your electric toothbrush??!!) Give me a break. No one cares. The only people who need to pay attention to how much electricity they’re using are homeowners so you can finally figure out how to REDUCE your use of the electricity that comes to your house AND figure out how to possibly SAVE your MONEY by rescheduling those appliances/activities that are running are peak (highest cost) times. Smart Meters will help us all. Those of you who like to scare and intimidate and create a paranoid atmosphere should try to grow up and learn to deal with progress. There are many other more scary and dangerous things going on around us than Smart Meters.
Elsie are you kidding? The smart meters do NOT bring efficiency or sustainability to anyone. They are a billing device. They cannot and do not save energy. Only YOU can do that. Are you seriously saying you need a smart meter to tell you to TURN OFF an electrical appliance to save money? Really??!!! You can’t figure out that when the light switch is off it uses less electricity than when it’s on? Really??!!! You can’t figure out that running your dishwasher at night will cost less than during peak daytime hours. Really??!!! You need big brother to watch you and tell you what’s right and wrong? And it not BS doomsdayers claiming that our electrical grid is vulnerable, it’s the former secretary of defense Leon Panetta, former CIA Director Woolsey (http://youtu.be/rIFD1sUTGX8) it’s the Antivirus manufacturers, it’s not a question of IF hackers can shut down the grid it’s a question of WHEN. And the most dangerous and scary thing I’ve read here today, is not only your willingness to jump in with both feet, but you’re demand to drag every one else with you. Do some research on your own, stop your knee jerk reactions, and then come back and comment.
Did you watch the video you posted? I don’t have a smart meter and can now call my house on my smart phone and turn the heat down. And why would someone want to hack my tstat anyway is there some sort of strategic advantage to turn down my heat? Truly you are not a genius.
Don’t waste your time on her, Not a genius. Let her persist in her indoctrinated ignorance. She’ll be a wonderful little slave to the state.
To Elsie: I spent a 30 year career in IT. I LOVE new technology. I too want to reduce my utility bills. BUT, I am smart enough, and open-minded enough, to know that just because a given technology may HELP in certain ways – it does not mean it cannot also bring HARM in other ways. I am a cancer survivor. I want to stay that way. Do YOU have the skills of my physician, to tell me EXACTLY how or whether MY compromised immune system may or may not react to constant, low-level RF emissions coming from a new device that would be attached to my home 24×7, that is unproven/untested relative to human health (as BGE admitted TWICE in public) ?
The answer is NO. And your last statement makes MY OWN point beautifully. Why, indeed, are the utilities irresponsibly and dangerously wasting time and spending money on a smart meter project – when they should be spending money and time protecting ALL Marylanders from terrorist attack on our grid, by ‘HARDENING’ the grid (so we can prevent what recently happened in California!). By the way, the ‘cost’ to harden the grid and protect us in that way? About two dollars a year for 4 years, per utility customer. Call Andy Harris’ office. He is on a national committee right now, to encourage ALL states to undertake this TRULY critical upgrade. In the meantime, have the decency to CARE and recognize you do NOT know the full consequences to peoples’ health, and you should therefore RESPECT the fact that NOT all people will be helped by smart meters, and those who are concerned have just as much right to say NO to a smart meter, as those who wish to say yes to one. You may have heard the word FREEDOM before ? YOU need to grow up, and learn how your freedoms are being threatened every day.
Your wifi router and cell phone gave you cancer, you should get rid of them before you catch it again.
Elsie are you kidding? The smart meters do NOT bring efficiency or sustainability to anyone. They are a billing device. They cannot and do not save energy. Only YOU can do that. Are you seriously saying you need a smart meter to tell you to TURN OFF an electrical appliance to save money? Really??!!! You can’t figure out that when the light switch is off it uses less electricity than when it’s on? Really??!!! You can’t figure out that running your dishwasher at night will cost less than during peak daytime hours. Really??!!! You need big brother to watch you and tell you what’s right and wrong? And it not BS doomsdayers claiming that our electrical grid is vulnerable, it’s the former secretary of defense Leon Panetta, former CIA Director Woolsey (http://youtu.be/rIFD1sUTGX8) it’s the Antivirus manufacturers, it’s not a question of IF hackers can shut down the grid it’s a question of WHEN. And the most dangerous and scary thing I’ve read here today, is not only your willingness to jump in with both feet, but you’re demand to drag every one else with you. Do some research on your own, stop your knee jerk reactions, and then come back and comment.
I have wondered if the “smart” water meter recently installed in my home is similar to what the power company wants to install? If so, any danger there? They told me that there is no cancer risk but you never know. What do you think?
They know what body parts you are washing with that water, better where a swimsuit in the shower.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/smart-meters (06/18/2013)
Call Logs? Try Kilowatts: Reports Reveal Demands for California Energy Data
By Matthew Cagle, Volunteer Attorney, ACLU of Northern California at 4:34pm
Amid recent revelations that the NSA has been secretly spying on phone records and the Internet activity of people in the United States, transparency reports filed by the California utilities companies and obtained by the ACLU of California show that a significant amount of data about the energy use of Californians could be ending up in the hands of the government too. In 2012, a single California utility company, San Diego Gas & Electric, disclosed the smart meter energy records of over 4,000 of its customers pursuant to legal demands – and it’s unclear whether this information was turned over in a private lawsuit, to local law enforcement, or even to the federal government.
http://smartmeterlawtx.wordpress.com/
April 21, 2013
Smart Meter Lawsuit Filed in Texas
“A lawsuit was recently filed in Texas claiming that smart meters violate wiretapping laws, invade people’s privacy, and that utilities are stealing the smart meter data in violation of Texas law.
As we follow this lawsuit, we will refer to it as the “Wiretap Lawsuit”.
The lawsuit was filed in January 2013 in Waco federal court (technically, the U.S. District Court, Western District, Waco Division) against:”
stopsmartmeters.org/2011/07/26/the-green-sheen-wearing-thin-how-corporate-environmental-organizations-are-providing-cover-for-the-mounting-ecological-catastrophe-of-the-“smart-grid”/