Just Say No to Big Brother’s Smart Meters by Orlean Koehle


caused their bill to sore. The couple were able to prove this, but PG&E would not change their bill. After months of complaining, the couple filed a formal complaint in March, 2010. PG&E came to their home and tested the couples SmartMeter and found it to be working accurately, but replaced it in June after it stopped transmitting electricity usage to PG&E’s billing system. PG&E installed a traditional electromechanical meter to conduct a "side-by-side"


performance comparison with the second SmartMeter on a weekly basis. By September, the second SmartMeter had also stopped transmitting electricity usage to PG&E. The utility sought to replace the second SmartMeter with a third, but Sokolova and Kacharovsky had had enough. They refused to allow PG&E to replace the second SmartMeter and insisted on keeping the electromechanical meter in place. By then, their bills were back to normal. In December of 2010, Judge Victor Ryerson, an administrative law judge with the CPUC heard the case, found the arguments of Sokolova and Kacharovsky very convincing and ruled in their favor. He ordered PG&E to grant a $1,400 refund. This will mark the first time state regulators have approved a customer refund because


of a SmartMeter and is likely to open up a new wave of complaints and court cases about SmartMeter accuracy and inflated utility bills. (http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/Published/Agenda_Decision/133932.htm)


Federal and State Laws About the Smart Meter Program: Is the


SmartMeter Really Mandatory? Often, when people say no to the utility employees who come to install the meters, they are told that the meters are mandatory. There is no stopping them. I was told by a PG&E representative that the only way that I could refuse the SmartMmeter is to get off the grid. Is this really true? According to the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, which is the bill that is behind the smart grid and SmartMeters’ plan, are they mandatory? I asked this question of attorney John Schlafly, the son of Phyllis Schlafly, founder and national president of Eagle Forum, the conservative organization that has always stood for the protection of life, liberty, property, and privacy rights. John sent me the following information:


Yes, I found the Energy Policy Act of 2005 at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS- 109hr6enr/ df/ BILLS-109hr6enr.pdf. Section 1252 is on pages 370-374.


The entire bill is 550 pages of very fine print. Here is another place to find the bill


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00006: (click on Text of Legislation) I think the purpose of this section is to encourage all electric utilities to use "time-


based metering" and "time-of-use pricing." The goal of this is that if you know exactly how much it costs to operate each of your appliances at different times of the day, you will tend to run them when it is cheaper. As I read this federal law, it does not mandate the utilities to install SmartMeters in


homes. It only mandates the utilities to "offer" them and to install them "upon customer request.”


So, if any of you hear the same statements that the meters are mandatory, just quote the above from the Energy Policy Act. The installation is not mandatory.


customer request.” You are the customer and you do not request them. You refuse them!


States Rights vs. Federal Laws: Even if the Energy Policy Act had used the words – “the Smart Meters are mandatory” and “everyone must allow installation,” there is such a thing as the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which essentially tells the Federal Government – “Sorry, if such is not written in the U.S. Constitution, then that right belongs to the states.” “The powers not


8 It should only be installed “upon


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